Safe water push intensifies amid lepto outbreak

WESTERN BUREAU:

As Westmoreland grapples with contaminated water sources and a leptospirosis outbreak, more than 270 households in and around Frome received urgently needed water-filtration units on Thursday through a partnership involving Global Medic, Wavz Beach, and the Ministry of Health.

Health Promotion and Education Officer Gerald Miller called the initiative timely and lifesaving, noting that the parish is also at risk for diarrhoeal illnesses such as gastroenteritis.

“We are very happy to be part of this collaborative effort, which was spearheaded by Rosa Young,” he said.

Young, proprietor of Wavz Beach in Negril, has been a key advocate for safe water access and preventing water-borne diseases.

The filters were supplied by Canadian humanitarian organisation Global Medic, which Young connected with after learning of its work in Jamaica.

“We are now witnessing 270 households now getting filters that can help to make their water safe,” Miller said. “So many of them were disappointed that they were not able to get one because there was just not enough, but this is a welcome initiative given our reality.”

Young said the effort represents only a fraction of what the parish needs.

“This is just a drop in the bucket. We’re actually going to need a lot more, but we’ll take whatever we can get,” said Young, who has also been distributing vitamins and painkillers, warning that the health fallout from Hurricane Melissa will likely have lasting effects. “Clean water is essential for life.”

The Frome Complex, now a major distribution hub for World Central Kitchen, provided an ideal location for bringing the community together. World Central Kitchen has been providing daily meals and water since the hurricane.

Frome Councillor Lidden Lewis welcomed the filtration kits as immediate relief for communities that struggled with water issues long before the storm

“The water that’s coming from the river now is contaminated, and that’s normal,” Lewis explained.

His long-term plan involves working with partners to install a larger filter system, which, he says, would come from a nearby blue hole, to make the water potable.

Lewis highlighted the dire situation in nearby communities like Geneva and Grange Hill, which currently have no water supply.

“I had to truck five loads of water between [last] Friday and today,” he said on Thursday.

Many communities have lacked piped water for nearly a decade, and Lewis believes that the Global Medic kits will provide critical immediate relief, noting that many elderly residents cannot afford to purchase bottled water daily.

“Now, leptospirosis is going around, and the water is contaminated. If it’s even the rainwater, [they will] be able to filter [it] to have drinking water.”

Lori Stross, part of Global Medic’s rapid response team, said the organisation focuses on disaster and conflict response, with water purification at its core. Each family emergency kit uses a simple two-bucket gravity system that filters contaminated water into clean, drinkable water. A single kit can serve a family of four for six months to a year, and the ceramic filter is between 92.9 per cent and to 99.99 per cent effective at removing bacteria and viruses.

Team member Aldon Haughton said Global Medic is preparing to reach other vulnerable communities, working with World Central Kitchen to assess needs.

“We are working with World Kitchen … . They have persons that go out in the communities to look to see what the needs are,” Haughton said. “So let’s say Whithorn needs like 30 units. We’ll be able to go to that area and do some distribution as well.”

Global Medic is also collaborating with the Salvation Army, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and Humanitarian First in Trelawny to reach places like Accompong in St Elizabeth as well as Flagstaff and Maroon Town in St James.

“We’re just touching on pockets of communities, responding to the right aid, the right people, the right time.”

mickalia.kington@gleanerjm.com