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Mason Hall, St Mary:
Thousands of residents living in St Mary Mason will have access to drinking water for the first time in December after pipe laying works by the National Water Commission (NWC) in partnership with Rural Water Supply Limited (RWSL) began last week.
The pipeline laying programme was attended on Thursday by Minister without Portfolio Matthew Samuda and the team from the Department of Economic Growth and Job Creation, West St Mary’s MP Robert Montague, NWC representatives and RWSL personnel.
“This follows Mason Hall’s commitment to initiate the long publicised water distribution storage and boosting project,” Samuda commented.
“This is a major expansion of the National Water Board’s distribution network that will benefit thousands of residents. The project is being implemented in partnership between the National Water Board and RWSL. A lot of the work is being done in-house by the Water Board. This represents an investment of over $170 million, and as you can see, this is not an empty promise, but one that makes citizens very happy.”
According to Samuda, the project consists of several components and is being implemented in phases. He noted that the entire Mason Hall distribution system will require more than 1 billion Jamaican dollars. He noted that the project is part of a Caribbean Development Bank-funded program to help rural communities get connected ahead of Vision 2030.
“In practical terms, this means that we have already started the works to ensure that Mason Hall gets water. This is the water they deserve and the water that the government has promised them many times before. I am very happy to be the minister who actually broke ground and started the works,” Samuda concluded.
Montagu was pleased with the commencement of the works and he spoke highly of the efforts of the Minister of Water Resources, saying that this was a promise they had made and delivered in a short period of time, which clearly showed that they were working hard to provide drinking water to residents in the shortest possible time.
Thank you very much
“On behalf of the residents of Mason Hall who have been waiting, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the minister,” Montague said.
“The residents of Mason Hall are anxious. They’ve seen the ground broken, they’ve seen the pipe bought, they’ve seen commitments made, (and) they’ve attended many events to get this project off the ground. But it ultimately took the man we call ‘the water boss,’ Mr. Samuda, who came in May, held a community meeting, then came back in July after (Hurricane Beryl) to do the groundbreaking, and he’s back today to lay the pipe,” Montague added.
Montagu announced that nearly 3,000 residents of the Mason Hall community will benefit from the water supply project, which is the first phase of the project. He noted that residents have promised to pay their bills on time, and the community is grateful for that, but they will be even happier before Christmas when Minister Samuda promises to return to Mason Hall to start the water supply system, and he said that is when the residents of Mason Hall will truly believe it.
The water supply project was reportedly being planned as early as 2007. However, after 17 years of delay, the project has finally started, delighting several residents including 75-year-old Joshua Mills, who said he never had the luxury of having running water at home.
Meanwhile, Philippa Campbell-Francis, acting vice president of operations for the US Coast Guard, said she is familiar with the entire process of the project from its conceptualization to now, and according to her, it is a very expensive project that will take some time to get started.
Campbell Francis said she was pleased to witness the actual work begin and the partnership with RWSL was a fantastic initiative which she said would guarantee success and would pave the way for residents to have running water in their homes in December.
Audley Thompson from Rural Water said he was pleased the project had started, while adding that RWSL was supporting NWC to ensure water was supplied to citizens by December.
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