THREE WEEKS WITHOUT A BATH Hope Flat still waiting for reliable water after year-old promise

For approximately three weeks, Juliet says she has not had a proper bath – not by choice, but because water is so scarce in her section of Hope Flat, St Andrew, that what little she can access must be carefully rationed.

“Me just wipe up bout three weeks now,” she told THE STAR. For Juliet, the situation is not new. She estimates that it has been about 10 years since she last saw water flowing from the pipes at her home. Her account comes approximately one year after THE STAR visited the area and documented residents struggling with a longstanding water crisis, buying trucked water, catching rainwater and reusing every drop they could.

At the time, two large black water tanks sat fenced at the edge of the community. Residents said the tanks had been installed months earlier and were expected to be connected to a nearby hillside spring, with water expected to begin flowing in August. Even then, residents were sceptical.

“Dem seh August. But we hear promise before,” one resident, whose name was changed to Miss Ivy, told THE STAR at the time. “Mi nuh hold mi breath.”

One year later, residents who were interviewed say the struggle for a dependable supply continues. Juliet can see the Hope River from her home, but when the news team visited, the river offered little relief. Sections of the riverbed were dry, with rocks and debris visible where water would normally flow.

“Even when the rainy season with the storm and dem something deh, we still nah get water. We watch the river come down, we still nah get water,” she said. Instead, she said residents are forced to purchase water and stretch their supply for as long as possible. According to Juliet, filling the black storage tanks used by residents can cost between $8,000 and $15,000, depending on the amount of water purchased.

The shortage is not confined to Hope Flat. Residents said that sections of neighbouring Kintyre and August Town also experience unreliable water supply, although the severity varies. In Hope Flat, residents said the disparity can exist within the community itself.

“Yuh have half of the community, like who deh pan the lower side, get water, but a long time no water nuh come yah so [in the elevated areas]. But weh we ago do?” Juliet said.

Her neighbour Maurice said the absence of water affects far more than bathing and cooking.

“Everything difficult without water. Water fi bathe, fi build house, because as you see everybody a try build fi years now,” he said. Juliet said some people have eventually moved away, while those who remain have had to improvise with drums, tanks and purchased water. She also recalled the excitement she felt when residents were previously told that infrastructure in the area would bring them relief.

“The politician dem trick we. Them make pump dung deh so, say we ago get water. Make me run out a me yard without clothes just because me want water,” she said.

It was not immediately clear whether the pump referenced by Juliet forms part of the same water intervention residents spoke about during THE STAR’s visit last year. The status of the two tanks that were observed, whether they were ultimately connected to the hillside spring as residents had expected, and whether they have provided water to the community also remain a mystery.

In Kintyre, Mr Bagga, a resident, said water sometimes reaches the pipes, but the supply is so weak that those living at higher elevations are particularly disadvantaged. He believes Hope Flat residents face an even more severe situation.

“We feel it in Kintyre, but Hope Flat feel it the most. Them nuh have no water at all,” he said. For him, the struggle is difficult to reconcile with Jamaica’s reputation for abundant natural resources.

“Land of wood and water and we a suffer without the most basic need for years now,” Mr Bagga said. “The contrast is dire. I try not to think about it because with a country with so many natural resources, so many rivers, ah boii.” He also pointed to the Hope River, saying even when it comes down, residents have no system to recycle it.

The situation echoes what residents told THE STAR during its visit last August. At that time, Miss Ivy said she had not received “one drop” through her pipes in five years and was spending approximately $5,000 each week on trucked water. Despite this, bills seen by THE STAR showed that the National Water Commission said she owed $188,562.43 as of June 2025. She described having to account for every drop reusing bath water to flush the toilet, saving rinsing water to mop her home and collecting rainwater in barrels.

“A years now we have this water problem,” Juliet said.