We need to take a bath in Kingston!

THE EDITOR, Sir:

It's the Great Water Shortage of 2012, and it is making our Government look like the world's biggest fool! Where is the responsibility of our elected leaders when it comes to our water supply?

We're three months into the rainy season and there has been little rain. The river beds are dry and the water in many parts of the country, especially in Kingston, our nation's capital, is now rationed.

At first, they started shutting off all water at 10 p.m., then 9 p.m. There was still moderate water pressure during the day; now, all we have is a trickle. You'd think there was no imminent solution available. Wrong!

We are surrounded by countless trillions of gallons of water! And there exists a technology called desalination, whereby water would be pumped from the Caribbean Sea through a reverse osmosis system, removing all the salt, other minerals and pollutants, and then pumped into our homes as a water supply which never runs out.

We could withstand any drought, even if our island turned into a desert, and never be without water again. National Water Commission profits wouldn't suffer like they do now, since we can't even bathe or flush our toilets for eight hours a day.

The costs of 'desal' have come way down from what they were 10 years ago, and today's systems are much more efficient, featuring a cost as low as US$0.001/litre. One Canadian company offers a system so portable, it can be set up in one hour and doesn't require an expensive physical structure to house it.

Take a few million from that US$1.3 billion we borrowed from our slave masters at the International Monetary Fund (no truer initials were ever spoken; that's what they do), and let's get our first desalination system installed next week!

Jamaica, grow up! Give us some God-blessed water now!

Michael Duberson