Dear Editor,

Having read your recent editorial on ‘Harvesting rainwater’â I feel I should make some comments on this matter. About 30 years ago, the subdivision of lands showed an increase. The Town Planning Department discussed the matter of water supply for these new, available lands, some of which were in areas where there were no water supply programmes and could not see the possibility of affording a supply programme.

It was suggested to the parish councils that one of the conditions of approval in areas where there was no available water supply should be the provision of tanks which should be supplied by water from the roofs of houses. This condition was then added to the existing conditions of approval. It was not considered to be able to take care of all the needs of a household, but was personal management, and as such could lessen — to a greater extent — the need for the responsibility of providing unlimited amount of water to these subdivisions.

I received my primary training from the Public Works Department and my first experience was the construction of the Percy Junor Hospital at Spaulding, an area which at that time did not have a water supply system.

However, to provide a supply to the hospital, a 100,000-gallon tank with a catchment of approximately one acre was constructed on a nearby elevated site and this, I believe, has served the hospital for a long time.

The Government subsequently built many of the 100,000-gallon, steel-reinforced concrete tanks with large catchment in areas where water was not accessible. Today, these tanks are providing water to the settlers of those areas, and in some cases where it had been possible to drill wells, these tanks are used as storage.

I recall in St Ann, a subdivision at Chippenham Park, where this tradition is adhered to. Rainwater tanks will not entirely alleviate the shortage of water at times, but if carefully used could curtail the monetary expenses that the Government is called upon to truck water to these areas.

Stanley Martin

Retired superintendent, St Ann Parish Council

Salem, Runaway Bay

Rainwater going to waste on a street in Montego Bay.