People's National Party (PNP) deputy spokesman on health and wellness Jesse James Clarke addresses a press conference Tuesday at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in St Andrew. Beside him is the party's spokesman on health Dr Alfred Dawes. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
JLP caucus slaps down PNP’s dirty water claim
THE Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) on Tuesday called for the resignation of People’s National Party (PNP) deputy spokesman on health and wellness Jesse James Clarke, accusing him of recklessness by spreading misinformation and making false and dangerous comments about the country’s water supply.
James Clarke alleged at a PNP press conference Tuesday that water being distributed for domestic consumption to residents of Kingston and St Andrew contained faecal matter.
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Attempts to get comments from the Ministry of Health on the matter on Tuesday, were unsuccessful.
Despite the backlash, James Clarke, appeared unwilling to back down and change his stance.
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“We have seen results that are quite alarming and we brought it to the public because we felt that not much was done to make the public aware of the risk they were being exposed to,” said James Clarke, who is chairman of the public health and sanitation committee for Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation.
He initially raised the concern last month, which was rejected by the National Water Commission (NWC).
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On Tuesday, James Clarke said that “after I brought these results to the public, I was accused of bringing false information and telling lies. However, I just want to highlight the results that we have here today”.
“It is showing what the levels of coliform [in the water] should be. Just for everyone, coliform are bacteria found in faeces and also in soil. They are an indication of the quality of water supply,” James Clarke said, pointing to a red line on chart which he said was the acceptable level of coliform in water.
Anything above that line, he insisted, was unacceptable.
“You should not have coliform levels going above five per cent. If you realise, for Kingston and St Andrew the line is right at five per cent and the yellow bar indicates distribution. That means after water leaves the plant to your pipes, something is happening along the lines after the water is treated because before that, it was okay.
“When you look at what is happening at a lot of rural water treatment sites, it is very clear from the graph [that] what you have at source is almost five times the allowable limit. You have five times the amount of germs that should be in the water and these are coliform. This means that you have very bad water quality after water was treated. Knowing this, the water was still distributed and there was distribution where the level is almost three times the allowable limit, at 17 for rural communities.”
He claimed that that wasn’t just a one-off situation for the month of February, saying it was a consistent thing especially for rural areas.
James Clarke questioned why the Ministry of Health came out saying that the water was safe for consumption in Kingston and St Andrew when the NWC produced results to the contrary.
Following the PNP press conference on Tuesday at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, the JLP caucus in the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) called for James Clarke’s resignation as PNP junior spokesperson and insisted that water in Kingston and St Andrew remains safe.
The JLP caucus, in a press release, stated that Clarke should be fired by PNP President Mark Golding.
The statement said the JLP councillor were making the call for him to be fired due to his repeated moves over the past few weeks to spread misinformation and make utterly false, reckless and dangerous utterances about the country’s water supply which is renowned across the region as being of good quality. The JLP KSAMC caucus implored James Clarke to desist from spreading “misinformation in an apparent bid to spread panic across the nation and seek political mileage”.
“What Councillor Clarke is doing is conflating data relating to source testing and the water quality within the distribution network. The reason that water is treated at the source is to remove contaminants. Clarke’s suggestion about major contaminants in the water supply has been rejected as patently false,” JLP councillor for the Cassia Park Division, Beverley Prince was quoted as saying in the statement.
“For the councillor to be making statements about the safety of water being consumed from an uninformed position is extremely reckless. I know that there are members of the PNP in senior roles who would profit from having the public switch in droves to buying bottled water from their distribution businesses. However, I urge the public to discern these statements and be reminded that the NWC and the Ministry of Health have repeatedly refuted the claims of Mr Clarke and the PNP,” Prince added.
