Next to major supply source, but Bounty Hall has no water

WESTERN BUREAU:The National Water Commission (NWC) said it is working to correct the deficiencies to its system which has left residents in Bounty Hall, Trelawny, out of potable water.

"There are low voltage issues that are affecting the Wakefield operations, especially at nights, and that has aggravated the situation that has resulted in us not being able to pump consistently to the Bounty Hall area," said Ava Marie Ingram, the NWC's regional communications manager.

"We are currently speaking to the power-supply provider to see how best to address that problem."

She also disclosed that plans are in place to expand the company's Martha Brae and Catherine Mount facilities by an additional two million and 1.8 million gallons per day, respectively.

Ingram was responding to queries from Western Focus regarding the lack of water supply to the community, which is home to one of the largest reservoirs and a water source in western Jamaica.

MONTHS WITHOUT WATER

Councillor for the Wakefield division and a former employee of the NWC, Jonathan Bartley, who resides in Bounty Hall, has charged that the almost 2,500 residents in the community have not been supplied with potable water for eight months.

This is so despite the fact that the water, which is sourced from the Queen of Spain Water Supply System, is also supplied to communities in the Wakefield area and Montego Bay in St James.

"I cannot understand how we can be supplying so many persons and yet this community cannot be supplied."

Ingram refused to give a timeline for the water-expansion project and suggested that financing could also prove to be a challenge.

A draft document dated October 2011, titled 'National Water Commission Trelawny Parish Plan', outlines a massive $6.59-billion rehabilitation and upgrading exercise to include the Bounty Hall area.

According to the document, about $7 million worth of improvement work will be done in Bounty Hall and its environs. The NWC produces approximately 3,891 million gallons (17,699 million cubic metres) of water annually in Trelawny and supplies 73 per cent of the population in the parish.