A decade without water
Longville residents bemoan difficulty accessing life-saving commodity
The National Water Commission’s slogan ‘Water is life’ is being scoffed at by some residents of Longville in Clarendon as, for the past 10 years, piped water inside their homes has been a distant memory.
“I’ve been carrying water for 10 years. I have no running water. None at all. When the water do come a some people pipe, it gone before the day done. So we have a big problem with water. We all have to walk to a little tank in the community to get water; and there’s nobody to come run some pipe or anything, yet still they say water is life,” 49-year-old Everald Smith huffed as he and other residents awaited their turn to fill buckets and bottles with the precious commodity at a community tank last week.
Smith, who said he lives in Soursop Turn, Longville, told the Jamaica Observer that he hasn’t had running water in his house for a decade, and has to depend on the tank, which is a far walk from his house.
He said he walks with two five-gallon bottles daily to get water for his household of three children. Some days he pays a taxi to transport him to the tank, thus allowing him the opportunity to fill more containers.
“Every day me haffi come catch water. It is very rough. It is terrible, especially we have kids to go to school. You have to get water for them to bathe and everything. I have a taxi friend and sometimes I will give him a $200 fi drop me down. When I do that, mi can full five of the big bottles and five of the smaller ones. Sometimes I take [wheel] barrow and push mi containers go down,” he said.
Taxi operator Richie Gayle, 25, related a similar experience, saying he, too, has been without piped water for about 10 years.
“A long time mi carry water. Mi haffi bring container from mi yard inna mi car, or mi get barrow bring dem. When mi full five bottle, just call it seh mi full two drum. And dem two drum deh nah last fi two day. So, if mi carry it go full today, mi haffi bring it back tomorrow evening,” he related.
“A seven people live inna my house, and if people decide fi wash, mi nah done carry water fi the day.”
A woman, who gave her name only as Sharon, was seen struggling with a five-gallon bottle of water. She admitting that it was all she could manage.
“It hard. It nuh easy. Right now, I have plenty containers to full up and mi cyaan manage. If mi a wash, I have to make five trips with one bottle. I have to come here every day, and when I do that, I can only manage one bottle. I cannot manage anything on my head,” she said.
Unlike the other residents, Sharon revealed that her house hasn’t been outfitted with pipes.
“A years now mi nuh have water. But mi nuh have no pipe. So even if water did a run, mi wouldn’t get none. Mi haffi pay money and go out a Bucknor fi water and that cost mi a lot… sometimes all $1,000 for two trips, depending on the amount a container weh mi carry,” she said.
Despite their difficulty, the residents were satisfied with the quality of the water in the tank.
“It clean, man,” said Smith. “It did stink and a give wi some problem some time ago, but not in recent times. And the heavy rains inna last year never affect it either.”
When the Jamaica Observer contacted the National Water Commission for a comment the company said it needs the account numbers of the residents in order to respond effectively.