IPSWICH NICE, BUT WE NEED ROADS AND WATER
While the rest of Jamaica grapples with violence, residents of Ipswich in St Elizabeth say they are a crime-free community.
However, the neighbourhood lags behind other areas where roads and water is concerned.
Residents of the seemingly quiet farming community say they have seen better days and have become victims of empty promises.
Daniel Clarke said, “We want likkle road fi go dung pan di main dung deh so. Nuh water nuh ina pipe. A river we go fi catch water, boss, or we get two tank, and when the water done, see it deh, a dry we deh pan right now. We deh behind time right here a Ipswich. No likkle post office and nothing nah duh here where we can get a little work.”
GOING TO THE RIVER
The residents told THE WESTERN STAR that people are suffering from the lack of water and have to go to the river.
“... And the river is a good distance from here so,” Clarke said.
Juliet Clarke, whose children have trouble getting to school because of a lack of transportation, bemoans the present structure of the roads.
She said: “Children dem can’t get no drive fi go out a morning time. We have to walk five miles from here to Elderslie ‘cause dem a tell yuh say the road bad. Mi deh a Santa (Cruz) from bout 12 o’clock and me never reach here until minutes to 9 o’clock. The road is very bad.”
The residents say they are sorry for the burden on the taxi men because of the deplorable roads.
“Right now,if me fi own all a ride, a lef me ago lef ya suh. Me nah go want it mash up. Ipswich nice, enuh. We can sleep with all we door open and the place nice, but we don’t have a road,” a resident told our news team.
THE WESTERN STAR was told that movement to and from the community is limited to only those who live there.
“Why anybody ago want to come here? No road not here and no water. The community jus at a standstill. The people nah integrate ‘cause nobody nah come here. We need better treatment now,” a resident said.
Vivian Yap, a farmer who resides in the community, says the road problem has existed for far too long.
He said: “A years me a talk bout. Mi nah talk like bout 30 years. A more like 40 year, or if yuh waa bruck it down, you bruck it a 50.”