By Cedric Johnson, Gleaner WriterWESTMORELAND:
DELFORD MORGAN, Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar has said an action plan to address the Roaring River sanitation problem is now before Cabinet.
He said the Westmoreland Parish Council is hoping that an urgent decision will be taken in respect to the implementation of the plan.
"This plan was prepared by the National Water Resources Authority and submitted to Water and Housing Minister Donald Buchanan," the Mayor announced as he addressed last Thursday's meeting of the Council.
Mayor Morgan told his colleagues that the information was relayed to him by Harry Douglas, the Junior Minister at the Water and Housing Ministry, who recently visited the Roaring River community in Westmoreland and spoke with the residents. Reports are that the junior minister has said he would be making a strong recommendation to government for the relocation of the residents.
CABINET
While the details of the action plan have not been made public, part of the preface to the document reads: "We expect that the urgency of the threat to the water quality and the recommendations for addressing these threats will be communicated to Cabinet, with a view to effecting corrective action in the short-term."
The Mayor told last month's meeting of the Council that research carried out from as early as 1986 showed that the Westmoreland Health Depart-ment, backed by the Western Health Authority, had been making consistent recommendation for action to protect the Roaring River water supply source which now serves some 100,000 persons.
COMBAT
"Excreta, pesticide and herbicides have been seeping into the water. It is my understanding that neither chlorine nor other treatment can combat some water-borne diseases," the Mayor pointed out.
It was brought to public attention some time ago that pit latrines in that largely squatter community were overflowing and that excreta was finding its way into the water source. The disclosure caused alarm and concern among residents of the parish and calls from the local health department for the relocation of the settlers.
