Living in filth - NWC addresses Spanish Town Road community’s sewage issues

For past two weeks, raw sewage has been spewing from a manhole in Union Gardens, on Spanish Town Road, St Andrew, leaving some residents sick and forcing others to close their businesses.

When THE STAR visited the community on a hot Sunday afternoon, the putrid smell of the sewage loitered in the air and residents were using multiple objects to block the road to prevent vehicles from driving through the sewage. They had gathered to share their grievances and were on the verge of a protest with multiple residents holding placards, one of which stated "S**t killing us."

"Every day wi just a smell s**t, cook s**t and nyam s**t! Wi tiad a dis!" said Dorothy Carson, one of 15 residents that has sewage flowing through her yard. Her neighbour Christina Glade is also being forced to contend with the flowing sewage, but for her the situation has become dire, because it is making her three-year-old son severely ill.

"Dis nuh look good, come on man wi have babies weh live here," Brooks said.

"A Thursday mi haffi rush my son gah hospital because di baby start vomit and have a wicked piece a diarrhoea. Look from when we a deal wid dis. A wah wi pickney dem afi guh dead fuss before unuh come fix it?" the frustrated mother questioned.

A frustrated Kerry Ann Brooks told THE STAR that she is being forced to lock her one-year-old daughter inside to prevent her from getting sick.

"A hide mi affia hide mi baby suh di fly and mosquito dem nuh tek har weh. Di fly dem a kill wi dung yah. Day and night wi cah even sleep; mosquito nuh stop nyam wi," Brooks said. "How long we supposed to live like this? A wah? We a nuhbody?"

In addition to leaving some residents sick, the flow of the raw sewage has left some residents without an income for days, forcing them into difficult financial situations. Cindy Stewart, who owns a bar and sells ice cream on Sundays, has been affected.

"Yuh see pan a day like today (Sunday) now mi would a sell mi cream, nobody nah come buy nuh cream from mi because dem seh a s**t cream. From dis start mi bar cah open because nobody cah stand the smell. Suh a hand to mouth mi afi a live right now," Stewart said, adding that she has no other form of income to care for herself and two children.

She also told the news team that on multiple occasions, she contacted the National Water Commission (NWC) to rectify the issue.

"Dis burst from di day before the hurricane and from dem time deh wi a call dem and look deh all now, more than two weeks now and nobody nuh show up," Stewart said.

However, after the news team left the community, Stewart later reached out to inform THE STAR that workers from the NWC arrived to clear the sewage which, for the residents, was a moment of jubilee.

"Wi feel good man because wi can guh back to business but fi know seh dem tek suh long mi feel a way because if a did some community it wouldn't tek suh long," Stewart said.