Cedric Johnson, Gleaner Writer
WESTMORELAND:
PARISH COUNCILLORS in drought-stricken Westmoreland are calling on the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to return to them the responsibility for providing water to areas of the parish in need of the commodity. They say funding for the provision and trucking of water was transferred to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.
"What is taking place in the parish is ridiculous. Two 4,000-gallon trucks assigned to the Rapid Response Unit broke down some time ago. After they were repaired, they came to the New Roads area with water for the public tank, but the hoses could not reach the tank," said Councillor Luther Buchanan. He also disclosed that the water was distributed to others, instead to persons who had purchased the water from Rapid Response several months earlier.
PERISHING
Councillor Buchanan, in relating a tale of water woes in his Leamington division, pointed out that farmers have to desert the land, cattle is perishing and housewives are finding it difficult to cope. "Yet, when I go to St. James and Trelawny, parishes that have no critical water needs, I see tractor-trailers drawing the commodity all over the place," said the councillor, who described the management of the Rapid Response Unit as irresponsible and insensitive.
Councillors Hopeton Tulsie and Trevor Jamieson said large sections of their respective Friendship and Darliston divisions have been reeling from the effect of the long drought. They joined Councillor Keith Barnes of the Cornwall Mountain division in support of Mayor Morgan's appeal for a return of the responsibility to the parish council, which utilised the services of private truckers before the transfer.
In her report the ODPEM coordinator for the parish, Hilma Tate, told the councillors that her office has made a request to the ministry for an allocation of $3 million to truck water to those areas in need of the commodity.
