Livingston Thompson
"TTHERE SHALl be yet six weeks of drought and behold, the drought shall be very severe but after that there will be rain."
Thus said Minister of Water, Donald Buchanan recently, in commenting on the current spell of drought that we are experiencing.
He went on to say that it would be costing the government some $5 million per week to respond to this water crisis.
The assertion of the minister reminds us of the story in Genesis, in which the Pharaoh dreamt about the seven fat cows and seven lean cows. In the dream, the seven lean cows ate the seven fat cows.
It was a disturbing dream for the Pharaoh, and that was how Joseph, who was able to interpret dreams, came into the picture. Joseph said the dream meant that there would be seven years of plenty, which would be followed by seven years of extremely severe famine.
Joseph's interpretation is the converse of Minister Buchanan's assertion for in the case of the latter, he expects the period of drought to be followed by a period of rain.
As we know, though, that period of rain is expected to be followed by another
period of drought, and so on.
SEARCHING FOR WATER
The cyclical pattern in the rainfall is not new. It was the same when I was growing up in Newport, South Manchester, 30 years ago. The periods of drought were equally severe. At one stage we had only one tank and so before long we had to get the buckets and kerosene tins to go in search of water.
My father kept cows, and so we had to carry water on our heads for these poor creatures, which had no conscience about the amount of water they drank.
We would have wished they knew how to share but once the cow put its head in the drum of water, the head would come up only when the cow had enough water or when the water was finished.
I can remember the times when we had to drive away one cow from the drum so that another would get some of the limited
commodity. The same was the situation in the use of water in the home. We were very excited when my father built an air tank, because we not only had running water but we could use the shower that required less water than the bath.
Conservation of water was not an option and planning to reduce the negative impact of the crisis was an ongoing affair - our lives depended on it.
In due time, my father built a second tank, twice the size of the first, so our water troubles were somewhat alleviated during the lean months. For my siblings and I, happiness was to see both tanks filled to the brim.
This is why I am amazed at the approach that the governments over the years have had to the situation with water. During the 1980s, I lived in the Springfield area of St. Elizabeth, which has a relatively high incidence of rainfall. It was always a distress to see the amount of water that would go to waste, as it rained every day during certain months of the year.
It was like clock-work. The rains bothered no one because it would come about the same time each day and people simply planned their lives around it.
WASTING WATER
However, all that water would simply go to ground. I would have imagined that all that was needed was a large reservoir in the hills, from which stored water could be piped to the plains of Santa Cruz, which does not have an equally high incidence of rainfall.
What is even more shameful is the fact that communities like Ginger Hill, Claremont, Crawle and YS are having a water crisis when it rains so heavily in those areas. People have to travel all the way from Ginger Hill to YS, no less that 15 kilometres in search of water.
It was in order to mitigate the desperate situation that the Moravian Church built a 40,000 gallon tank in Springfield (as it has in Lititz, Newport, Maidstone, Mizpah, Carmel, to name a few) to store water from the months of plenty. However, when the months of drought come, as is now the case, 40,000 gallons do not last very long.
The situation with the water supply in other regions, especially in St. Elizabeth and Manchester, is pretty much the same.
PLANNING FOR WATER
The time has come for the government to make better use of the months of plenty. We need a 'Joseph' to manage this crisis! It is inexcusable that we should allow so much water to go to ground during the rainy months and then to go crying to God during the drought.
It is nothing but irresponsible use of the country's resources to use $30 million for six weeks in one year, as a haphazard response to the crisis, when that money would be sufficient to construct a facility that could last for many years storing water for several lean months.
The Government and communities must act quickly to reforest the hills that have been damaged by fire so that the incidence of rainfall can be kept stable or be improved.
The service agency, Unitas of Jamaica, has taken this challenge seriously and with the help of the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, will be doing reforestation in certain communities in Manchester. Beyond that, however, a greater effort must be made to catch and store the water during the months of plenty.
Like Pharaoh, I had a dream: In my dream, I saw several lean cows and several fat cows. Then I looked and noticed that the fat cows were devouring lean cows.
Then one of the fat cows turned and was coming now to devour me. I started to run but I could not see properly because it was raining. Then I jumped out of my sleep. I wonder what this means?
Rev. Dr. Livingstone Thompson is the immediate past president of the Moravian Church in Jamaica.
