The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

THE MP for Mount Moriah oversaw the start of major water works in his constituency on Friday after over 40 years of water issue complaints from Melvern Road residents.

For decades, the citizens of the Yellow Elder Gardens community have petitioned several successive governments to address the water pipe issue in their community. Due to the state of the pipes that service Melvern Road, rusty water with low pressure was piped into their houses, to the constant financial and emotional stress of the residents of 80 homes.

But last week Mount Moriah MP and Chairman of the Bahamas Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority McKell Bonaby, in conjunction with the Water and Sewerage Corporation, finally commenced the six-week long, six figure project to replace the decrepit pipes.

Mr Bonaby said that commencement of this work was the fulfilment of a longstanding campaign promise he made to his beleaguered constituents.

“We are dealing with some infrastructural work,” he told The Tribune. “During the campaign trail many of the residents on Melvern Road lamented about the problems that they were facing. Specifically, they were dealing with issues of rusty water and low water pressure, and they explained to me that these issues have been prolonged and protracted and they’ve been experiencing these issues for more than 40 years.

“And so, it was incumbent upon me as the candidate at that time to find out what was happening, and I promised them that I would try my best to deal with the issues once elected. And so said so done,” Mr Bonaby said.

“I am here with the team from Water and Sewerage, and they are doing yeoman’s work today. They are currently replacing some of the old rusty pipes that have been laid many moons ago and also making sure that by doing so we are remediating the rusty water and also the low water pressure. And this is not about me, just understand that this is about the people this is about dealing with the people’s work. And this is not about their future, but this is about the urgency of now.”

He detailed the troubles faced by Melvern Road residents and said that it was his duty to finally ensure that his constituents could live with dignity.

“We’ve had residents having to throw away old water, washing machines, water heaters because of the hard water and it’s created a lot of hardships in this community. And that is my job to relieve some of those hardships wherever I may by using government resources to ensure that the people can live with dignity.”

Samuel Knowles, a Melvern Road resident of over 30 years, discussed how the water issue affected his life for years, saying it had a real impact on his high school years.

“It’s affected my life plenty,” Mr Knowles said. “Growing up just simply going to school, anything that white, you ain’t have nothing white. You can only wear these things once. From you wash, they turn that rusty colour. So, imagine you’re going to HO Nash, you gotta wash that white shirt. Imagine you going to Government High, you gotta wash that white pants. So how you think that affecting your life? The teachers or the principal telling you, you aren’t wearing the right colour pants,” Mr Knowles said.

He said he felt the government “owed” him and the other residents for how long it took to finally address the issue.

“And that’s a major problem. And you know you can’t drink it, you can’t cook in it, you can’t do nothing with it, so we’ve been spending for a long time just to maintain our life. I feel like at the end of the day the government owes me some of this money back.”

Mr Knowles voiced his support for Mr Bonaby, saying he is proud of the “marvellous work” his MP was doing for the community.

While the MP for Mount Moriah could not say why it took successive governments so long to finally address the issue on Melvern Road, he said it was now his aim to prioritise his constituents’ needs.