Sewage causing a stink in downtown Kingston

It literally stinks in sections of downtown Kingston as raw sewage spews from manholes along various streets, posing a health risk and inconveniencing businesses, pedestrians and vendors who operate and traverse the areas daily.

The corner of Orange and East Queen streets, as well as West Queen Street and Heywood streets are all affected. THE STAR team observed pedestrians skilfully making their way across a large pool of stagnant water along Orange Street yesterday. A cab driver, who was seeking passengers, stated that he has to constantly keep his nose and mouth covered to shield himself from the stench.

"Yuh know how much blind people drop inna it face down? Right now we have to make it our point of duty to lay wait dem and cross them. Is we have to use dem piece a board deh fi build bridge fi di people dem. About two weeks ago, a schoolgirl drop right down in it. Mi feel sorry fi har, enuh, because di whole of her face go down in the nasty water. Yuh could see the shame on her. Another time is a man drop down on him belly in deh," the cabbie said.

With Christmas Day just five days away, thousands of shoppers and hundreds of vendors have converged within the downtown area to conduct business. Approximately a footstep away from the sewage, a man was observed slicing and selling watermelons to customers, some of whom were standing in a shallow section of the 'pool'. Pillows, cushions and clothing items were also spread out along another section of Orange Street where the sewage steadily runs.

"It disappear about a month ago and come back worse and more stink. Yuh see when the car dem pass and drive inna parts of it, the scent a di water make yuh feel like yuh a go pass out. A just through we have to hustle why we out here. The stench very terrible. Look over the park and see how it pretty up with lights and ting, and over here suh stink like s**t," another vendor said.

According to the vendors, the sewage results from blocked and overflowing manholes. They are urging the relevant authorities to speedily rectify the situation.

A newspaper vendor said she is recovering from a throat infection that she is convinced was caused by the sewage.

"Is $2,500 for my doctor fee and I spend a lot more for medications. We not even a talk about the mosquitoes that breeding up in it and the fact that we can't breathe in peace. Every minute yuh see some official people come look at it and den nutten," she said.

The complaints were similar along Heywood Street. A group of fish vendors said the stench has been slowing down their business significantly.

"Yuh lucky a inna di day weh it nuh so bad. A morning time it run like river and we can't catch we breath. We use stick almost every day and try free up the hole, but if yuh notice, it gather up in the road. The way the place stink, some people nuh wah come buy fish down here. A buyer tell mi say she can't buy mi fish because she still a smell di s**t water in her mind when she eat di fish," the man said.

THE STAR reached out to a representative from the National Water Commission for a comment, but we were told that sufficient time was required to deliver a response.