28/01/2016
Frustrated with the lack of attention given by government authorities as St. Thomas’ water woes worsened last year and with increasing reports of persons falling ill, JLP Caretaker Delano Seiveright and Councillor Michael McLeod urgently commenced the trucking of water to the worst affected areas of St. Thomas Eastern to the tune of over half a million dollars. Both gentlemen used their own money to fund the project.
While temporary and financed privately, the trucked water benefitted hundreds of homes that had been without the precious resource for weeks and months in many cases.
Under a JLP Government we will work with the Ministry of Water, the Ministry of Local Government, St. Thomas Parish Council and the National Water Commission in once and for all systematically addressing what are really basic water problems.
In the case of St Thomas, the situation is quite dire. Here we have a 'water-rich' parish, having water supply problems on the scale of 'water-poor' Manchester. The Yallahs River in good times pumps 17 million imperial gallons of water per day into the Kingston Metropolitan Area. Further yet, the Plantain Garden River has the capacity to produce 8 million imperial gallons per day (MGD) of water, which is more than the average day demand of 5.8 MGD for the entire parish. However, the Whitehall Treatment Plant, which obtains water from this source, only treats 0.3 MGD of this water, approximately 5 per cent!
WE NEED A CHANGE. WE NEED LEADERSHIP.