Boscobelle residents want PM Mottley to visit area, address water woes

Residents of Boscobelle, St Peter, are appealing to Prime Minister Mia Mottley to pay them a visit so that they can tell her how frustrated they are about the ongoing water woes they have been experiencing.

The frustrated residents said for too many years they have been experiencing significant water outages, which they believe seem to be getting worse.

On Friday evening, June Clarke, of Hurley’s Gap, who said she was lucky to get water that day as a result of a kind hearted man passing through the area giving water to residents, told Barbados TODAY it is time Prime Minister Mottley visits Boscobelle.

Clarke has to use a wheelbarrow to get water from a community tank in order to meet the sanitary needs of her brother who had a stroke. In a passionate tone, 78-year-old Clarke said it has been seven days that Boscobelle residents have not gotten a drop of water from their taps.

Clarke also said that the community tanks are always out of water because residents empty them as fast as tankers from the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) refill them.

Clarke said: “When you wake up in the mornings you can’t face your own toilet in your house because of the scent that going through it. And all you talk and ask for some person to assist you, nobody is coming at all. I think it is time for the Prime Minister to step in and do something about Boscobelle and all the surrounding areas that can’t get water. It is unfair to us … I am a woman 78 years old and I am pushing a pan cart, pushing”.

“We want the Prime Minister to know that Boscobelle belongs to her,” another Hurley Gap resident added.

Several other residents at Hurley Gap got loud as they lamented how they have become tired of dealing with the water challenges.

Meanwhile, Shirnelle, who lives in The Alley, Boscobelle, said she was fed up with hearing the reasons why residents cannot get an effective water service, and also stressed that she was especially tired that residents get no warning, or notification that the water will be going off.

Shirnelle also complained about the poor quality of the water residents are forced to use whenever they do get water from the taps.

“Our water bill is still 100 and something dollars and sometimes it is even higher. This is hard and then you have other utility bills to pay and then you still have to go to a supermarket and buy water to drink.

“During the ash time, we had to leave and walk miles to get to the spring just to get a little water because they say them ain’t sending out anybody in the ash. It is frustrating and we need help,” Shirnelle said.

Shirnelle said Member of Parliament for the area Collin Jordan visited last year to meet with residents to discuss their concerns, and he promised that they will receive assistance, which she said they are still waiting on.

An elderly woman from the area said that she was tired of buying drinking water, and noted that she has animals. She recalled walking long distances for water when she was a child, and stressed that she is struggling to understand why she is still doing it in the 21^st century.

“Before COVID come in we aint getting no water and it is disgusting. You think them could go in the heights and the terraces and do these things. They will tell the people in the heights and the terraces when the water going off and when it coming on,” the elderly woman said.

A nurse living in the area said it is frustrating going home from work and unable to have a shower or cook meals for her children at times.

“We want water. When we get water it is brown. We ain’t had water since Sunday; you know how hard it is on us. This is bare junk. I got to walk from all down in there with buckets,” one man said. (AH)