Bolt's hometown still grappling with water woes

WESTERN BUREAU:Residents of the Sherwood Content district in Trelawny, the hometown of sprint kingpin, Usain Bolt, are still discontented that the immediate environs, including the home of his family, are still without running water. This is despite the efforts of two major corporate entities to jump-start the process some four years ago.

"Dem no recognise Sherwood!" a displeased shopkeeper, Sharon Lawrence, told Western Focus. "They promised us water from in the 1970s, 1980s coming up. From ever since, we have had no running water. We have to get water from rainfall and maybe sometimes you see them (National Water Commission and Trelawny Parish Council) come through with a water truck. If not, if the Lord don't shower us with little rain, we have no water."

Lawrence said residents have had to resort to paying as much as $2,000 for a tankful of water, which can only serve a household for up to two weeks or less.

"I was born in this parish, grew up in Sherwood Content, and I was schooled here, and I am more than 50-odd years old now, and from the day I born, I never see water in Sherwood," another resident, Owen Barrett, complained.

"So we have a serious problem with water in Sherwood, and so far, we see nothing coming. The member of parliament, the councillor, everybody just come in and just blah-blah-blah."

He recalled that Digicel and Red Stripe had joined forces with the National Water Commission to conduct the excavation and installation of pipelines, but the taps have remained dry.

No explanation

"The pipelines are still there, but still no water. There is no explanation. Martha Brae River is supplying St James, Hanover, and even back into St Ann, and Sherwood is only five miles away from Martha Brae River. I hope to see the water come to Sherwood before I die," Barrett added.

When Western Focus contacted councillor of the Sherwood Content Division, Telka Holt, she said she was aware of the situation and had been making constant representations to the NWC.

"In the meantime, though, ... I have asked the parish council to truck water within the area, but the council isn't able to do house-to-house delivery of water. I have asked persons to bring their drums to a central location so they can fill them.

"Some persons have not done so, while some have, so, therefore, that's where you will have a shortage as it relates to my assisting," Holt said.

"There are several outlets (springs) coming from the Sherwood area, and all of that water goes right back into the Martha Brae River, and it is from there you find that the Martha Brae Treatment Plant gets its water, which is sent to Montego Bay, St James, and St Ann and as far away as St Mary.

She added: "So for the people living in the vicinity, it should not be that they are deprived of running water. They are the ones who should have water right away. I am calling on the NWC to look at that situation seriously," the councillor said. "The people can't go on every day wondering where water is coming from and just waiting on the waters above. It cannot be," she said.

The Sherwood Content Blue Hole is listed by the NWC in its Draft Water Supply Parish Plan as one of the main surface-water sources in the parish of Trelawny.

In its description of the Sherwood Content Water Supply, the NWC noted that the community, as well as Coxheath and Reserve, is served by a blue hole with an estimated yield of 220,000 gallons per day for an estimated population of 3,646. However, the document also noted that "the supply from this source is unreliable due to water turbidity issues".

Not enough water

NWC's Community Relations Officer Julia Gordon told Western Focus that the water problem had been exacerbated by the theft of a pump and vandalism of a treatment plant. She said, however, that pipelines which were laid had been activated.

"The reason why there may be no water in the pipes is that we don't have enough water to get to those areas because there are a number of people pulling the water off before it gets to that end.

"People closer to the source would, naturally, get the water before those farthest away. So that's why we have to look into the option of rehabilitating that source so we can increase the production and capacity of that plant," Gordon said.