Moses smote de rock, out gushed water

When ULP won de elect-shun in 2001, Lie-za asked me what ah looking forward mostly from de new regime. Ah told her: “Water! Yes whether is foh drinking, farming whatever, de most important commodity foh our existence is Water.

She said “Yuh go wait long fee dat, Never!.” Come 2005, ULP had ah repeat win, “two-in-ah-Row!” In 2010 de losers cried Fowl, same cry in 2015, Fowl, and in 2020 “Five-in-ah-Row!” But Lie-Za is correct, dey build Airport, dey (Tie-One) build Rabacca Bridge, New Port in Rose Place, tek NIS Money build hotels, but still no water. Seems like it will tek ah Moses to strike de Rock thrice not twice before our water woes are over.

Right now dey’s ah serious shortage of water, de supply is being rationed, and dis dreadful sit-yuh-hear-shun needs not be so. We blaming drought, and we blaming Climate Change, but our priorities wrong! What have we done over de last 50 years to increase and enhance in an effective way, de storage capacity of our Water Catchment areas in SVG. Somebody says thanks to Sandals, de Francois supply in de Vermont Valley was revitalized by CWSA eh. Dat’s ok, part of development.

What’s bothering, is how come we could find NIS money to build new Holiday Hotel? Find money to upgrade playing field wid lights, electronic scoreboard, build spectators swimming pools on de boundary; but we cant find money to build new Storage Tanks or Catchments to supply drinking water foh citizens. I am advised dat Forests wid large trees near our water supply enhance de quantity and quality of de water. But we have not been doing much in terms of reforestation within water supply catchment areas Ah not sure who is de Minister foh Water but Lie-Za say to ease-up on she man G-Me, how she ask G-Me way going on wid his mem’ry, way non-cents he said in Par-liar-mint dat no front Line wukers were fired foh refusing to tek de COVID 19 Vax-scene. His reply was: “I might lie sometimes, but not all de tme.” No disrespect to de hard working CWSA team of engineers and workers in general. But when Daniel Cummings was General Manager, CWSA built its modern admin building at New Montrose using CWSA generated income.

AH CWSA/NEMO GET-TO-GATHER

What ah find unacceptable is dat as ah result of de disruptive water service, ah number of schools are widout water and so closure is inevitable. Yuh telling me dat dey’s no standby water tanks at our schools. During de volcanic eruption two years ago, among de relief items sent to SVG were hundreds if not thousands of 400, 600 and 800 gallons plastic water tanks lying at Camden Park. Not many were distributed and foh want of space, hundreds of these tanks were literally dumped over at Ottley Hall in de bush, dat’s way ah last saw dem ah year ago.

People cried shame on NEMO who I think, is or was responsible foh Disaster Relief Supplies. Why couldn’t NEMO and CWSA co-ordinate and have those tanks effectively distributed. Invite de Min of Eddy-Care-Shun in de picture and have all of our schools fitted with reserve water tanks in wash-rooms and where-ever. Poor Moses, he better look sharp come strike rocks.

And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

• Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.