PROTEST COMES DAYS AFTER GROUND BROKEN FOR IMPROVED SYSTEM
Residents of Brown’s Town and surrounding communities in St Ann are being assured that the National Water Commission (NWC) will increase the trucking of water to their areas, following a protest on Monday, February 19.
The protests blocked roads into and out of Brown’s Town and were mounted by residents upset at the lack of piped water to their homes and businesses for nearly two weeks.
The action by residents came days after the Minister with responsibility for Water, Matthew Samuda on Friday, February 16, broke ground for the Minard Well Replacement Project, just outside in Brown’s Town.
The project, to commence this month, will cost $60 million and is expected to provide two million gallons of water per day. It is to replace the old well and system that supplies a million gallons a day. The old well and pumps have broken down for years, regularly leaving hundreds of residents without water for long periods.
On Monday, protestors used stones, lit tyres, and other debris to block the roads from Brown Town to Discovery Bay, Runaway Bay, and Bamboo. The roadblocks resulted in hundreds of people getting to work and school late.
(Police respond to Brown’s Town roadblock in pre-dawn hours Monday, Feb. 19)
Speaking to the North Coast Times Monday evening, NWC Manager of St Ann, Richard Williams said the Commission had been trucking water to Brown’s Town and the affected communities before the protest. However, he said the demand was great given the number of educational and other institutions in Brown’s Town, and communities that had to be supplied. Mr Williams said the trucking would continue with between three and five trucks involved every day.
Mr Williams said work has started on the new well at Minard and the old well should be in operation in about three weeks.
He said the new well should be completed in six months and would significantly improve the water supply. Mr Williams said people who said the NWC was not supplying water did not know that the unmarked trucks delivering water were working for the Commission. He said one of the NWC’s marked tucks would join the fleet taking water to the communities normally served by the Minard facility.
(Watch as fire officers put out flames at one area where the Brown’s town main road was blocked.)
