Deadly Water business in Jamaica
A message to be careful of deadly water is what greeted me this morning. I awoke and after my mediations turned to see what was in the news. Turning to the Gleaner, my number one source for Jamaican news, I found the message being sent out to be careful of the trucked water.
Now Jamaica was called Xayamaca meaning land of wood and water. However parts of Jamaica has not been the land of water in recent times especially in the Kingston and St. Andrew area. The of lack of water in the piped system caused by a severe drought has seen an increase in 'trucked water'. The questions on my person's lips were where was this water coming from and what was the quality of the water.
Not even bathing water standard?
The Gleaner provided some answers to those questions by providing locations and testing the water quality. The results seem to point to high bacterial content at many of the sources. The bacteria content of potable water is suppose to be zero and bathable water, 100 MPN (most probable number) per millilitre. In many cases it appears the levels exceeded even bathing water standards.
Whether it is piped water or trucked water, water for drinking purposes must be boiled or treated with Chlorine tablets or adding the appropriate amount of bleach to the water.
The main article then goes on to explore a possible link between increased gastroenteritis cases and quality of water. According to the article, Dr Sheila Campbell-Forrester, chief medical officer (CMO), thinks the link is not far-fetched. Gastroenteritis can kill, so drinking contaminated water could be deadly.
Another area the Gleaner might water to look at, is the so-called bottled water. On another note, I do not like experts that cannot be named and an 'expert water sample taker' might have added more credibility to the reports.
References
Comments