Homes swimming in filth
Sections of Price Lane off North Street in downtown Kingston, were left swimming in filth yesterday, leaving residents fearful of the potential outbreak of diseases.
“I have 11 grand pickney living with me and dem couldn’t come out to go school this morning because to how the water did a flow up, dem couldn’t come over the water,” Merkel Clarke said. “Right now I have to mek sure dem stay in the house because mi nuh waan dem come out and play inna dat water fi get sick and mi is a sickly person. Mi is a diabetic so I can’t tek it.”
The senior citizen is among the host of community members who are now concerned the murky water spewing up from manholes may have serious implications.
Many children in the community were stopped from school yesterday after sewage flooded their yards in a new twist of the prolonged problem of raw sewage overflowing on North Street.
“Mi know when this down, it ago leave some virus and whole lot a children live here,” Devon Edwards said.
The National Water Commission tried to correct the problem of sewage flooding homes in the vicinity of North Street with a $36 million project.
But the residents of Price Lane believe their attempt to rectify one problem may have caused a bigger problem.
“Before dem come and do weh dem say dem do, a years it affect us living on North Street. But a di first mi see it like this, where water just a overflow from every manhole inna the lane,” Richard Mulling said.
Clarke, and other residents told THE STAR they have stopped from preparing cooked meals in fear that their current conditions may cause them to become sick.
“Mi cant even cook because the smell alone will sick you,” Clarke said.
Another resident said: “Right now a up a mi mother mi affi go eat, because the manhole inna my yard a overflow so much, mi fraid fi cook. It nuh mek nuh sense because the scent a come over mi dinner.”