Raw sewage still flowing in Cornwall Court after 5 months
National Water Commission says it is still working on a fix
Published:Wednesday | March 12, 2025 | 12:08 AMAdrian Frater/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Five months after the St James Health Services promised that the problematic issue of raw sewage flowing along a busy thoroughfare at the Porto Bello entrance to Cornwall Court in Montego Bay would be addressed, the situation has not changed. As a result, motorists and pedestrians have been left with no choice but to navigate the sewage and awful stench daily.
The Gleaner had highlighted, at the time, residents taking the National Water Commission (NWC) and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) to task, saying they jointly bore responsibility.
According to the residents, the NWC was responsible for sewage and the HAJ for unresolved infrastructural issues as the Porto Bello, which the agency constructed, was never officially turned over to the municipal corporation.
Also at the time, Lennox Wallace, the then acting parish manager for the St James Health Services, acknowledged the ongoing issues and told The Gleaner that the NWC was served with a notice on September 26 to expedite repairs.
“In recent weeks, I have gotten more than 30 calls from persons in the community, including persons employed in the health sector who reside in the community,” Wallace said then. “Part of the problem has to do with who has responsibility for the sewerage system as both the HAJ and the NWC are seemingly not taking ownership of it.”
After The Gleaner highlighted the matter, Delano Williams, acting corporate public relations manager at the NWC, said it would be addressed, noting that the NWC had sourced a generator to drive a pump connected to the sewage main, which, once install, would put an end to the concerns.
However, contacted by The Gleaner yesterday, Williams said the system was not currently automated so, when the generator that runs the plant “chips”, it causes an overflow. He said work was currently being undertaken to address that issue.
“We are finetuning it to automate it... . We expect to rectify that in very very short order, so there would be continuous pumping whenever effluent is in the network,” Williams said. “What you are seeing is an overflow as a result of that and [that] is something that we treating with.”
He added: “We apologise to the residents who might be impacted and we are giving them the assurance that this is a matter that we are treating with as much urgency as we possibly can.”
However, faced with the sewage water spreading to previously unaffected areas, some residents are now expressing anger, even contemplating a protest at the offices of the NWC.
“We have been more than patient with these people but it would appear that they don’t care,” said a woman who walks around both the Cornwall Court and Porto Bello housing schemes in the mornings as part of her ‘keep healthy’ regime. “I am here trying my best to keep healthy, and these people are hellbent on putting my health at risk… . I feel insulted as a taxpayer. We deserve better.”
Many of the persons who walk in the affected area in the mornings are forced to wear masks covering their noses and mouths to shield themselves from the stench and the flies, which they said are increasing in numbers.
The Cornwall Court Citizens’ Association said it has made numerous representations to the NWC, HAJ and the St James Health Services, but it has remained unclear to its members when the situation will be addressed to the satisfaction of residents.