NWC faces suit
August 27, 2009
An old environmental battle has made its way to the courts.
Residents of Harbour View, St Andrew, have filed a suit in the Supreme Court against the National Water Commission (NWC) to force the utility company to rehabilitate a sewage treatment plant that has been functioning poorly for nearly 20 years.
The two residents who filed the claim are being supported and represented by the Jamaica Environment Trust's legal counsel, Danielle Andrade.
Beach restoration
In the claim, filed last week, the residents are also seeking an order for NWC to clean and restore the beach, as well as to have the company compensate them for harm caused.
"If you look at the coastline surrounding the Harbour View sewage treatment plant, it is overrun by improperly treated sewage and that is a serious health hazard and a public nuisance," Andrade argued.
One of the residents named as a claimant in the suit contended that the foul odour resulting from the seepage of the sewage into the Kingston Harbour has also occasionally caused schools, churches and other organisations in the vicinity to close their doors temporarily.
"We are charged anywhere round about $2,000 up for sewage (treatment) per household. Now, when you take that into account, even if you take into consideration currency devaluation, you are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars," Carol Lawton Jr said....
Author: Gleaner Reporter
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
