Benevolent societies to manage rural water systems
BY CLAUDIENNE EDWARDS Observer staff reporter
Monday, February 27, 2006
A number of rural communities will soon have benevolent societies in place to manage the parishes' water and sanitation systems, according to Linnette Vassel of the Ministry of Water and Housing.
The benevolent societies will be established under a Government of Jamaica and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan agreement. The IDB is lending the government US$10 million to facilitate its plan to provide potable water for all by 2010.
To this end, Vassel said the first two benevolent societies of the ministry's pilot project would be launched later this year at Five Star, St Elizabeth and Whitehorses, St Thomas. She told the Observer that the programme would eventually be expanded, but that the pilot would include four benevolent societies, covering approximately 15 communities in St Elizabeth, Clarendon and St Mary.
The Five Star Development Benevolent Society, she explained, would comprise the five communities of Fives Pen, Cotterwood, Content, Sellington and Shrewsberry, while the benevolent society in St Thomas would comprise the districts of Whitehorses, Botany and Pamphret. She was speaking on Tuesday at a workshop at the Knutsford Hotel in Kingston.
"The government intends to expand this modality through the establishment of a rural water supply company, so that the work that we are doing is going to be merged with the work of Caribbean Engineering to set up a rural water supply company that will focus on community-managed water systems, as well as systems managed by the parish councils and so forth," Vassel explained.
She said the benevolent societies would be patterned off those set up under the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF). Vassel said that similar water supply systems for rural areas had been set up in such Latin American countries as Colombia, Uruguay and Costa Rica, in South Africa and Tanzania and in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Desmond Munroe, the Water and Housing Ministry's chief technical director of water, said that women had an important role to play in the management of the water and sanitation systems to be established in rural communities. Women who used a major portion of the water supply for domestic chores had a key interest in its proper management, Munroe said.
"Gone are the days when men were paramount in the management of water supply systems.... now these systems cannot run properly without a number of interests, and key to these interests is women, who continue to use most of the water through washing and cooking and all of these domestic affairs," Munroe said.
BY CLAUDIENNE EDWARDS Observer staff reporter
Monday, February 27, 2006
A number of rural communities will soon have benevolent societies in place to manage the parishes' water and sanitation systems, according to Linnette Vassel of the Ministry of Water and Housing.
The benevolent societies will be established under a Government of Jamaica and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan agreement. The IDB is lending the government US$10 million to facilitate its plan to provide potable water for all by 2010.
To this end, Vassel said the first two benevolent societies of the ministry's pilot project would be launched later this year at Five Star, St Elizabeth and Whitehorses, St Thomas. She told the Observer that the programme would eventually be expanded, but that the pilot would include four benevolent societies, covering approximately 15 communities in St Elizabeth, Clarendon and St Mary.
The Five Star Development Benevolent Society, she explained, would comprise the five communities of Fives Pen, Cotterwood, Content, Sellington and Shrewsberry, while the benevolent society in St Thomas would comprise the districts of Whitehorses, Botany and Pamphret. She was speaking on Tuesday at a workshop at the Knutsford Hotel in Kingston.
"The government intends to expand this modality through the establishment of a rural water supply company, so that the work that we are doing is going to be merged with the work of Caribbean Engineering to set up a rural water supply company that will focus on community-managed water systems, as well as systems managed by the parish councils and so forth," Vassel explained.
She said the benevolent societies would be patterned off those set up under the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF). Vassel said that similar water supply systems for rural areas had been set up in such Latin American countries as Colombia, Uruguay and Costa Rica, in South Africa and Tanzania and in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Desmond Munroe, the Water and Housing Ministry's chief technical director of water, said that women had an important role to play in the management of the water and sanitation systems to be established in rural communities. Women who used a major portion of the water supply for domestic chores had a key interest in its proper management, Munroe said.
"Gone are the days when men were paramount in the management of water supply systems.... now these systems cannot run properly without a number of interests, and key to these interests is women, who continue to use most of the water through washing and cooking and all of these domestic affairs," Munroe said.
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