MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — As some sections of Westmoreland experience low levels of rainfall, the parish’s health department is advising residents to exercise caution when sourcing and using water for domestic purposes, to prevent potential health risks.

In a release on Monday, Health Education and Promotion Officer for the parish, Gerald Miller, said the department wants citizens to safeguard themselves from illnesses that can occur because of unsafe water.

“We want to remind residents to ensure that the water they are consuming is safe, and when we say safe we mean that it is free from contaminants, free from germs that can cause them to get sick,” he noted.

Miller said that citizens are being encouraged to pay attention to advisories regarding the treatment of water.

“For areas where persons must buy water, we are encouraging them to ensure that they adhere to guidelines that are set by the Westmoreland Public Health Department. So, they are to ensure that truckers have a food handler’s permit and they have a sterilisation certificate, and the licence plate number [on the document] must be the same as the truck that they are purchasing water from,” he said.

“We want persons to pay attention to these guidelines because we do not want our people to end up having gastroenteritis or other diseases that could be avoided if they had ensured that the water they consume is safe. So, persons should follow the guidelines as to how to treat water if they are going to boil it and how to treat with it if they are going to use bleach.”

He further underscored the importance of adhering to the measures to ensure that hospitals and health centres are not overrun with persons having diarrhoeal illnesses.