THE EDITOR, Sir:
SOME OF the things that happen in this country defy all understanding. On several occasions since 2004 we have seen a JDF helicopter, with water bucket hanging, flying over Mona Heights towards the mountains.
How in the world can a poor debt-ridden country like ours, use its security/emergency services helicopter to transport water from the Mona Reservoir to put out bush fires on the hillsides of St. Andrew?
Already the Mona Reservoir is inadequate to supply the water needs of the fraction of the Corporate Area, which it serves. Every year late winter, early spring we are subjected to water lock-offs, low pressure, and restrictions in the use of water. How then can the powers that be allow this precious commodity to be squandered in this way?
If we are rich enough to use helicopters for this purpose why are we not using the water from Kingston Harbour instead of Mona Reservoir? Is it that seawater cannot put out bush fires, or, have the expert hydrologists in the Government and the National Water Commission advised against its use?
I feel that this blatant piece of extravagance needs to be explained to the taxpayers and the water-rate payers of the Corporate Area and its environs.
I am, etc.,
H. A. TOMLINSON
49 Gardenia Avenue
Kingston 6
