GEORGIA Wolliston — with her braids swinging as her neighbours watched casually — dances to a catchy dancehall track blaring from a nearby mini sound system, oblivious to the piercing afternoon sun as she entertained herself in the absence of a more lucrative pastime.

She paused to voice a common worry among many young people in rural and urban communities across the island: “My biggest problem is no work…

“We want some work in the community. If you don’t have work you can’t elevate; everybody just a sit down on road side. If we have work, everything good; from you don’t have anything to grasp, you just going to be idle,” the young Kintyre, St Andrew East Rural, resident said.

Her neighbour up the street, Lilburn Brayne, wants a protective wall built for the residents of Quarry Heights, a community, she says, which houses close to 200 people.

Brayne said children in Quarry Heights are at risk because of the absence of a structure that would protect them from slipping several feet from the embankment used to access the area.

“We don’t have any water up there, and the wall need fixing. Yuh know how many kids fall down here?” she lamented.

Lyndo’s Gap residents in the Dallas division of the St Andrew East Rural constituency, Tamara Cowan and Arlene Bunting, said they are satisfied with the facilities in their community, but, like many other residents, they want to see an end to the water shortage.

“We get water from way up in the hills, and, like on Mondays, we would get, but we don’t get it couple times well now and sometimes its argument and war. We always make complaint… if we make complaint today, we get water tomorrow and then we don’t get it for couple months again because it looks like the MP [Member of Parliament] have to be behind them every day for us to get water,” Cowan told the Jamaica Observer during a recent visit to the area.

Charmaine McDonald of Violet Bank district said she is frustrated with the water problem with which the area has been faced for the past 20 years. She said, too, that residents are prepared to pay if the National Water Commission is willing to enter into an arrangement with them.

“We have a tank, but the water source isn’t good, so we can’t get water in the tank. The river is very dirty, we can watch bacteria. [National] Water Commission needs to come and keep a meeting with us; we are willing to pay,” she stressed.

Along the Mount Charles main road in Mavis Bank, the Observer team spoke with Leonie Hunter.

Hunter operates a small jerk business and she, too, stressed that there is an urgent need for water and more opportunities for young people in the area.

— Alphea Saunders