Councillor taking steps to address water crisis in Lucky Valley
COUNCILLOR FOR the Mt Industry division of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation Roogae Kirlew has made a move to solve the water crisis that is affecting the more than 400 residents in the Lucky Valley community.
Kirlew has identified two water sources in the area that he said, if given the funding to develop, would ease the crisis and provide running water to the residents.
“In the district of Penn in Lucky Valley, I have identified a natural spring with a large volume of water coming from below the surface that could be put to use right away to address the problem,” Kirlew told The Gleaner.
“The idea is to build an entombment to capture the water and then pump it to the highest point and gravity-feed to sections of the community.”
According to Kirlew, this could be done on a phased basis, attaching a second pump in phase two to deal with the areas where the gravity-feed would not work.
The councillor said there is another source in the Berry Hill area that would not need a pump, but would need an entombment from which to gravity feed water to the entire community.
“The residents have been experiencing a water crisis for years, and no solution has come from the National Water Commission (NWC). I am aware that there is an NWC system in place that can only help the residents of Glengoffe, so I have to do something to ease the pressure these citizens have been experiencing for so long,” he said.
Kirlew said he is hoping that help will come to develop these systems, but in the meantime, he is taking the initiative with whatever resources he can gather to address the prolonged water crisis.