SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Parish Councillor for the Balaclava Division in NE St Elizabeth Everton Fisher has written to Water and Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang, urging the speedy improvement of the Union Water Supply System which serves Balaclava and neighbouring communities.

Fisher, who represents the People’s National Party, said the Union Water system — which was erected in 1976 — “has long outlived its usefulness” and needed to be upgraded or integrated into the Belomond System which currently serves Siloah and its environs also in NE St Elizabeth.

Fisher claimed that the state-run water supplier, the National Water Commission (NWC), was in agreement with him on the proposed solution.

The parish councillor reported in his letter that because of the inadequacy of the public water system, residents of Balaclava were having to rely on the private trucking of water which he described as “a very expensive venture, especially in these times”.

Citizens, he said, were “irate about the situation” and to make matters worse, although some NWC customers in the Balaclava area were not getting piped water at all, they were still being billed for the commodity.

Fisher noted that the St Elizabeth Parish Council had from “time to time” sought to assist by trucking water to some affected areas but that effort was being undermined by “financial constraints”.

The parish councillor reminded Chang that on a visit to the St Elizabeth Parish Council in 2008, he had promised an upgrade for the Union Water Supply system. Since the minister’s visit, he (Fisher) had initiated a “community meeting” with the NWC “so that a better understanding of the problem would be relayed to the community”. But, he said, the situation had deteriorated since then.