April 15, 2024 - Week 12

As I breathed in that familiar distinctive smoke smell, I was reminded of the bushfires back home, and yet it did not occur to me that an actual bushfire was happening here in St Andrew - the parish I was in. Nature has a way of always reminding us that no matter what country we live in, we face the one same Mother Nature. And Climate Change is real.

Although I probably will not be seeing my favourite Aus Hercules waterbomber aircraft anytime soon, I may soon see or hear the JDF helicopters come to the rescue.

The usual reminder to citizens to not be careless with cigarette butts and to stop using slash-and-burn techniques to clear land during this dry spell is echoing all round. To top it off, there is a drought happening. It always is ironic to me that both Australia and Jamaica (islands surrounded by water) undergo regular drought periods - understandably Australia's landmass is larger affecting weather conditions and precipitation; but Jamaica seems a lot smaller to me...can we not use a desalination plant? Oh wait, someone already wrote a letter to the editor of Jamaica's The Gleaner newspaper to opine exactly on this last year...

Of course, I had to go down the rabbit hole to investigate what is contributing to this water shortage. Based on primary and secondary data I have learnt that it comes down to some unavoidable and some preventable reasons. Unavoidable: actually not sure. Avoidable: global warming, land use, pollution of water sources, infrastructure issues - pipes, water tanks, water trucks and dam maintenance (or lack of maintenance...)

Currently the community around the school and the school itself has no water. It's week two and the students returned from March break to no water for drinking, to wash up or for flushing. Normally there are emergency water tanks to substitute for the lack of pipe water, but with low water pressure in the last month and construction happening at school, even the water in these tanks have been used up. So it is online school for now until the government fixes the piping issue (momentarily).