Water woes hit sections of Croft’s Hill
July 2, 2019On a sun-drenched Saturday morning in the Georges Hill area of Croft’s Hill Division, Clarendon, Maxine Palmer prepared her donkey for a lonely two-mile trek through bushes to fetch water at a spring called Rock.
She was leaving behind, a scene of destruction caused by a fire, in which her elderly neighbour Alvin Seville lost his life. There was no water for residents to extinguish the blaze thought it already was out of control when first seen.
As Maxine and her donkey disappeared behind a patch of trees, residents – without success, tried to convince her not to travel alone to the spring.
Maxine’s water sourcing options, however, are limited.
One option is to travel the much longer distance to a river in another community called British; another option is to get piped water from other residents.
Other residents, however, are in no position to help, considering that they too face a similar woe. Their pipes have been empty for too long.
Residents claimed that the authorities have blocked the piped water from coming into Georges Hill and other communities located close to Clarendon’s border with St Catherine.
They added that their call for their political representatives to address the situation has fallen on deaf ears. Their Member of Parliament is Horace Dalley; their Councillor is Anthony O’Connor.
A St John resident told The Beacon that the water situation in that community is similar to the situation in the neighbouring Georges Hill and some other parts of the Croft’s Hill Division.
“When dem mind tell dem, dem send the water in the pipe. But, for now, no water,” the resident explained. “When the water comes, the pressure is not strong like long time ago. We living at the border have to wait till everybody else in the other half of the community full up [their containers]. That is about four to five days, before they turn off the water again.”
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