Pat Roxborough, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
IF YOU are still washing your car with a running hose every week, sprinkling your lawn or doing anything that requires considerable or excessive use of water, watch out.
Starting this week, the National Water Commission (NWC) says it will be taking a tougher approach to people caught wasting the water it supplies or using it in ways prohibited in a notice it issued last month. The NWC said it will be relying on the police, the public and its own employees to deter water wasters.
"We have several hundred employees across the island who work on the road during their normal course of duties. We have asked them to increase their vigilance," said Charles Buchannan, an NWC spokesman. "We have also asked our employees who don't work on the road to be on the lookout."
The NWC is hoping that the public willingly complies with its prohibition notice which sets out the circumstances under which the water supplied by the NWC must not be used. Barring that, the utility company plans to get tougher.
"As time goes by we will be getting more stringent," said Mr. Buchannan.
The NWC issued a notice two weeks ago making it illegal for the public to use the company's water on lawns, wash their garages, pathways, cars, or fill swimming pools. Anyone caught disobeying the notice can be taken to court and on conviction by a resident magistrate, can be fined up to $1,000 or 30 days imprisonment if the fine is not paid.
But, as confirmed by Mr. Buchannan, many Jamaicans are either ignorant of the notice, or think it only applies to Kingston, where the drought is being felt the hardest.
"This is the first I am hearing about (the restrictions)," said Michelle Williams, a 25-year-old resident of St. Catherine. "What does it mean? We must drive dirty cars?"
Mr. Buchannan said the notice applied to the entire island. However, he added that the restrictions will not force the closure of car-wash operations.
"No, the spirit of the notice is not to put anyone out of business," he said.
He explained that the NWC had discussed the issue with such operators and they were told to cut down on the amount of water used to wash a vehicle.
Clinton Whyte, who owns the Car Salon, a car wash on Hope Road in Kingston, supports the NWC's suggestion that pressurised water reduced the amount used to wash cars.
"It does bear weight because if you put the water under pressure by injecting air into it, you use less water and time to do the job," Mr. Whyte said.
The levels of water in the Mona and Her-mitage dams, which serve several communities in Kingston and St. Andrew, are still way below capacity. At Mona, which has a capacity of 3,675 megalitres, the water level on August 1 was 1,295 megalitres or 35.1 per cent of the total capacity, down from 1,385 megalitres or 37. 7 per cent the week before.
The water level at the Hermitage was 961 megalitres or 53.7 per cent of total capacity on August 1, down from 1,136 or 63.5 per cent the week before.
