By Claudia Gardner:
Ten years after the National Water Commission (NWC) unveiled its Water Supply Improvement Plan for Hanover, many residents in the parish are still grappling with water woes, an issue which has left councillors of the Hanover Municipal Corporation highly displeased.
Councillor of the Hopewell Division Devon Brown, is especially peeved as he says the problem is even more grievous as many of his constituents who are suffering water shortages, live in close proximity to the Great River which supplies the NWC’s Water Treatment Plant at the Hanover/St. James border.
The comments came after the NWC report which was pre-circulated was brought up for discussion during July’s Regular Monthly Meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC).
Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels had made reference to a water trucking schedule which he said was submitted by the NWC, but which Brown argued was ridiculous as it did not contain any dates.
“There is a trucking schedule at the back here. Any councillor can confirm if this really happen,” Samuels had asked.
“When they send lists to us bout trucking of water, they should put dates,” Brown had said in response.
Fictitious list
While the Mayor tried to figure out whether the document contained actual dates Brown added: “Question, Chairman, since when Water Commission have truck to truck water?
“Chairman, this is all a fictitious list, because I have called Water Commission and they are asking us to get trucks and they are providing water. So I don’t know,” he told the similarly baffled Mayor.
“June 21st Woodland has been out of water and as you can see currently, because of mechanical failure, the pump is down. And they have not trucked one ounce of water to those communities, all the way from Round Hill Drive to Woodland, all the way to Great River,” the Councillor added.
When the Mayor began to openly wonder whether or not it was the “Wednesday coming” that the water would be trucked, Brown interjected, stating that there was no room for speculation.
“That’s why I am saying there is no date on it, only days. And it is from the 21st that Round Hill Drive, all the way to Great River, persons who are so close to the system can’t enjoy it,” Brown said.
“Nuh true, that is really bad, that is really bad,” the Mayor responded.
Water woes in Caudwell Division
Mayor Samuels then outlined a ‘litany of water woes’ that his constituents within the Caudwell Division which he represents were facing, even as he acknowledged that there was “a problem in Pell River” which the NWC had helped him to resolve.
“My concern is that there are some areas that are out of water that is not on this schedule any at all. For example, I haven’t seen Blenheim on it; I don’t see Rock Spring either, and those are two of the main areas that I have in my division,” he said.
Samuels also queried how the Sandy Bay community came to be placed on the NWC’s list when the adjoining mountainous community of Mount Pelier which was more affected by water shortages, was not.
He also said he could not fathom how the NWC, which was an essential service, was restricting the delivery of water to weekdays only.
“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Five working days in the week and NWC choose to truck water on the five working days in the week. You have Saturday and Sunday – I am not comparing both agencies – but JPS work seven days,” the Mayor said.
“Now NWC, can only serve you from Monday to Friday. Or they are trying to lie to us that they are serving us from Monday to Friday?” he said quizzically.
Bring NWC to book
The Mayor then called for a motion to be moved to summon the NWC to address the contentious issue “at the earliest time”.
“We need to bring them to books. Councillors we need to bring them to books. What approach are we going to take to this? Are we going to call them in for a meeting?” he asked.
“We will definitely have to take the same approach like what we took with JPS. JS came here; we beat them up until they are somewhere now. Yes, yes. We beat up JPS and we get some results out of it and it is so good. We shouldn’t have to take that approach but what are we going to do about NWC because to me NWC is causing or pain than what we experienced with any other agency,” the Mayor continued.
Samuels then added: “Water is life. Water is life. Whilst we can live without electricity, water is really essential. And here we are now with a situation where, as the councilor said, that we received fictitious report from these people. And I would want to agree with him. I would really want to agree.”
Parish Water Plan
According to the NWCs Parish Water Plan for Hanover which was released on October 12, 2011, the commission produces “some 635,457 cubic metres of water per month in Hanover through five surface sources: Shettlewood Spring, Cascade, New Milns, Logwood and Kendal.
The NWC also disclosed in the document that it now provides water to some 80.78 percent of Hanover’s population, which was a marginal improvement over 2001 when the level of coverage was at 74 percent.
The Commission also noted that the reliability of service to those served by NWC was estimated to average 18 hours per day and that the average utilization rate of the parish was 79.70 percent.
Aged Water Supply Network in Hanover
The water supply network, it acknowledge, throughout the parish is “aged and undersized, contributing to unacceptable level of service there”.
IAs for the total length of pipeline within the parish the NWC said it stood at 455 km with varying material types including PVC.
The NWC had said that its Water Supply Improvement Plan for Hanover would involve an expenditure of $5.4732 billion “over the next twenty years” which would see it carrying out “a number of water supply rehabilitation and upgrading works” including the “replacement of major sections of the aged and undersized water supply infrastructure and improvement in water supply pressure management”.
According to the Commission, the plans also includes the increasing of water supply coverage to 93 percent of Hanover’s population by the end of 2030 and “service reliability to 24 hours per day at that time”.
