Water restrictions trigger heightened public health oversight

With water restrictions on in earnest for the Corporate Area, chief public health inspector for Kingston and St Andrew Grayson Hutchinson says officers are maintaining their vigilance in monitoring vendors and food establishments while carrying out their other duties and responsibilities. Since earlier this year, nightly water restrictions and scheduled supply cuts have been implemented for several vulnerable Corporate Area communities with prohibition orders looming effective August 10 if drought conditions worsen. Up to last week, projections from the Meteorological Service of Jamaica showed prolonged dry conditions stretching into October this year.

According to principal director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica Evan Thompson, as at the end of June the parishes of St Elizabeth, St James, St Ann, and St Mary “were determined to be experiencing drought conditions” while the parishes of Manchester and St Catherine “were both basically on the borderline, in that they were just about moving toward drought conditions”. Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, Hutchinson said health inspectors will not relax their stance. “We continue to do our monitoring of vendors, fast food establishments, and food establishments on a whole, to ensure that all the requirements are being met, even though there is that restriction and even though there is drought at present, those persons operating food and establishments are required to ensure that they have adequate amounts of water to satisfy their needs and to ensure that cleaning and sanitisation is done, and to continue to ensure that the risk of food-borne illnesses to customers is significantly reduced.

Our stance will not change,” Hutchinson said. So there is no change in our approach,” Hutchinson said, adding that food handling establishments should have sufficient contingency or backup storage of water, despite the water restrictions, to continue to carry on their activities. “For vendors, we expect that they will also have their jars or containers with water to ensure that hand washing is carried out, and that they treat water that …