St. Ann school forced to close due to lack of water

 

Frustration is mounting as the community of Parry Town in St. Ann enters its ninth day without running water, forcing a local school to suspend classes at noon.

 

Chairman of the Parry Town Primary and Infant School in Ocho Rios, as well as Councillor for the Beecher Town Division, Ian Bell, says several attempts to make contact with the National Water Commission have been unsuccessful. Councillor Bell, who described the situation as a disgrace, argued that the NWC has failed to establish contingency measures to ensure the distribution of water in the area. 

 

"I'm trying to call the regional manager from morning and he's not answering. We have a total of 359 students there and there's no way a school can operate without water. I think it is great negligence of the National Water Commission. It is a shame, embarrassment and disgrace on the National Water Commission and their performance." 

 

Meanwhile, the NWC explained that the pump was removed to facilitate repairs. It has since committed to reinstalling the system by this Thursday. The Commission said potable water has also been trucked to the affected areas. However, Councillor Bell has indicated otherwise. He called for a review of the NWC's operations in St. Ann.

 

"The Water Commission in this parish needs to be revamped. They are lazy, they are incompetent and they are unprofessional, and we cannot have students and parents and teachers suffering under this condition. St. Ann don't have a water problem. St. Ann have a distribution problem because of their incompetence," he maintained. 

 

"So I have to be now asking the parents to send and collect their children and I do not believe that we will resume school again until next week because they were going to have tomorrow as the last day, but there's no water in sight. And since this happened there is no trucking of water at all, not even [to] the school," the chairman complained.