MAYOR OF May Pen, Councillor Milton Brown, has criticised the arrangements in place for minor water supply systems in deep rural communities, for which the Parish Councils are in charge.
Councillor Brown, who was addressing the monthly general meeting of the Clarendon Parish Council last Thursday, said it was clear that the National Water Commission (NWC) and the Ministry of Water and Housing held responsibility for only communities and supply systems which brought in significant revenue. In contrast, said the mayor, the Parish Councils, with very little funding from central government, "were left with the non-commercial arm of the (national) water supply system."
However, he said despite the clear inequity in the arrangement, the Clarendon Parish Council had succeeded in returning "some of our run-down systems into operation through rehabilitation of the plants. He said the special focus that it took to realise those goals came from the fact that "We in the Parish Councils hold our people in rural Jamaica in no less esteem than we hold those in our metropolitan areas and we think they too should get good water."
In pointing to the recent formation of a new company called Rural Water Supply Company, within the Ministry of Water and Housing, to replace another company that previously existed within the Ministry, Mayor Brown questioned the wisdom of having a minor water supply company under that ministry instead of within the Ministry of Local Government.
"Why is the new company to deal with rural water not under the Ministry of Local Government?" asked the mayor. "When an area of government is under-financed, it is left with the Ministry of Local Government, but when finance is put in place, it is moved to a more favoured Ministry. The Ministry of Local Government is closest to the people of this country and the Parish Councils should be properly financed and allowed to deal with the life needs of the people."
