Roadwork changing water colour, disrupting phone lines
Various sections of the Corporate Area have been under road repairs for the past few months. And while some persons are happy that the nation’s roads are being fixed, many are displeased with the lack of water or the dirty water they are getting through their pipes.
Lenard Dixon, who has lived in the Constant Spring area for 35 years, said that since the road construction began, his water has been dirty.
“What mi do is me catch the water and mek it settle. When you just catch it, yuh nuh see the dirty things dem, enuh. Is when it settle you see the rust at the bottom of the water,” he said.
While this may present health problems, Dixon said that he is not able to buy any bottled water, and so, he has to drink the piped water even though it has impurities.
“Mi nah tell no lie enuh, mi drink it same way. All mi do, mi mek it settle, and that’s it,” he said.
Another resident from Seaview Gardens said that the water they are getting is horrible.
“Di water inna the pipe is very dirty. It look clean when it come out, but after a while, you see it look very brown,” the resident said.
However, corporate public relations manager at the National Water Commission, Charles Buchanan, said that there are explanations for the discolouration.
“It normally happens when work is being done on the pipeline or there is subsequent water interruption,” he said.
“It normally doesn’t present any health hazard or any bacterial issues. It is normally an aesthetic and colour problem, but when we get complaints, we get them checked or get the network flushed to clean the pipeline,” he added.
While some persons complain about their water, several businesses are experiencing telephone network problems because of the construction that is taking place across the area.
In a statement, utility company FLOW said that they are aware of the disruption, which is caused by extensive damage to several sections of their fibre and copper network.
“We recognise that these outages have greatly inconvenienced our business customers. Our focus, therefore, is on restoring services as quickly as possible,” the company said.