THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE A SAY IN THE KIND OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT GOVERNMENT UNDERTAKES
The concept of growth and prosperity for all suggest creating a balance between material and social wealth. Social wealth speaks to the quality of life enhanced by developing sustainable public infrastructures around community values, expectations, and priorities.
To often developing countries are ignoring these basic rules pursuing Public-Private Partnership in building community infrastructures. We see modern toll roads, while the majority still drink contaminated water or served by poorly developed water distribution infrastructure while many rely on rainwater stored in open tanks providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Many communities in Jamaica do not have piped water while low water pressure and stoppage plague most urban communities. For growth to occur infrastructure development must be prioritized, water is key to food security.
Observer 2018, “After more than 50 years without piped water, the residents of Lower Buxton and Middle Buxton, two communities in St Ann, have grown accustomed to harvesting rainwater.”
Observer 2014, “for the past 10 years, 69-year-old Kenneth Richards has been riding his trusted donkey a mile down the hills of Holland Mountain, in St Elizabeth, to a standpipe in Lacovia to catch water to feed his animals and supply his household. The trip, for a man like Richards who is accustomed to the convenience of potable water, can be as taxing on the brain as it is on the body, and he yearns for the days when the precious commodity flowed in his pipe.”
by Silbert Barrett
