The much talked about John Compton Dam (JCD) desilting project shows no signs of leaving the political corridors any time soon.
United Workers Party {UWP} Deputy Political Leader Dominic Fedee appears to have added wood to the fire, charging the Philip Pierre administration with “mismanagement” in relation to the government’s handling of island’s water situation.
Fedee pointed to pipes sitting at the sewerage plant in Beausejour, that he says was purchased by the former UWP administration in 2021 for the specific purpose of alleviating the water problem in the extreme north of the island. The pipes, he says, have been untouched for five years, accusing the government of playing politics with the water issue. “These pipes were actually installed from the Monchy Gap to the Key Largo Gap and what was suppose to happen, the government was suppose to have continued laying these pipes all the way to the north of the island so that the people of the north can be relieved of the very unreliable water supply which has persisted all these years.”
Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre recently announced that funding had been secured for the installation of the pipeline from the Bonne Terre Gap to the Gros Islet Gap and that work would start within weeks, a pronouncement which was echoed by the Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO). The former Tourism Minister who is also a current UWP senator admitted that he was aware of reported imminent push to revamp the northern water infrastructure but contends that it is five years too late. “This could have avoided a lot of suffering that a lot of people have gone through. There are many people that have to truck water to get to their homes, there are many people, for example, that have to go without water for many many weeks despite having storage tanks and the necessary facilities to try to ameliorate the problem that is confronting the people in the north of the island.”
Asked about the approximately 60 million dollars utilized on the John Compton Dam project, Fedee claimed disinformation on the part of the Prime Minister and the government. He pointed to the Golder Associates Report on the De-silting and Rehabilitation plan at the island’s main water collection facility. The UWP Deputy Political Leader seemingly had no issue with the expenditure at the JCD suggesting that the matter was blown out of proportion and the current administration simply had to continue the de-silting process, claiming that the Golder Report said as much.