The Editor, Sir:

The extent of devastation now being experienced due to drought conditions is almost entirely avoidable.

Our water resources have been poorly managed over the years and the current implementation strategies show no improvement, neither do they show any understanding of, nor do they give any hope of arriving at some relief in the near future.

I find it unbelievable that we have a robust seasonal rainfall at the higher elevations of our country, at predictable intervals and yet our engineers and policymakers make no effort to design 'rainwater traps' which will not only relieve the known drought periods, but also bring along with them reduced soil erosion, increase fire prevention along with other benefits.

Permanent sources

The weaknesses in our current water-management strategy stare us in the face when you consider that the following sources deliver an excess of millions of gallons of twice per year along their spillway after the National Water Commission's contraption has maximised their take-off.

These permanent sources are:

1. The Handover Spring

2. The Ginger River

3. Second Breadfast Spring

4. Plantain River

5. Moresham

6. The Wag Water

In other countries such as Japan, which face even more hostile drought conditions at times, there is a networking of rooftops which yield storage of millions of gallons of water.

We design and install water storage facilities up to a maximum of four million gallons with all the safety features that can be thought of. An instructive example of rooftop rainwater harvesting is to be found at Northern Caribbean University where a half million gallon tank is fed from the rooftops and which repeatedly overflows although only about 20 per cent of the available collection service is directed therein.

Cavaliers Water-Storage System

Another example of wasted resources is the Cavaliers Water Storage System where in this hot summer sun, thousands of gallons are lost daily to evaporation from an uncovered storage system. There are locations around the Corporate Area which offer themselves as ideal settings for the collection of rooftop water which can then be treated (filtered and chlorinated) and returned to the community for immediate use. It is obvious that the traditional trapping and distribution of water continue to become more expensive and unless new thinking accompanied by modern strategies are applied, we will soon 'die of thirst.'

I am, etc,

OSWALD SEYMOUR

ossie1@cwjamaica.com

21 Connolley Avenue

Kingston 4