The Jamaica Star :: Features :: Whitfield Town's water woes

Left: Women walking along Maxfield Avenue with empty kegs to catch water from a nearby standpipe. - peta-gaye clachar photos Right: A woman washes clothes on Barnes Avenue.

For over a year some residents of Whitfield Town in south west St Andrew have had to be renting handcarts to carry water to their homes.

The residents say they are tired of renting a cart for $400 per trip and are pleading for some water in their pipes.

Residents say the lack of water has only fuelled an ongoing war in the community. "When ever you go pan di next side fi water and dem see yuh dem shoot you. So it just end up a cause more war," one resident said.

Although there is currently a ceasefire in the community, it is still difficult for residents to get water. Many have to walk miles to one of the few standpipes, which still has water, on Maxfield Avenue to fill their drums.

Fear of being shot

On Sundays residents say everyone comes to Barnes Avenue, off Maxfield Avenue, to bathe and do their laundry.

But the fear of being shot is still a real one for the residents. "If we hear two shots fire, wi haffi tek up wi things and run," one resident said.

Another resident admitted that some residents were stealing water and so that affected their supply, but she added that quite a number of them are willing to pay for the water.

Charles Buchanan, communication manager for National Water Commission (NWC), said they were encouraging residents to come in and talk to them and regularise their water supply. In addition he said that the infrastructure in the area needed updating and that the commission was not getting enough money through bill payment in the community to replace the infrastructure.

At the same time he said the commission was sorry that legitimate customers in the community were affected, however he encouraged residents to convince their neighbours, who were not legal nor paying any bills to get regularised.