Water seekers issued death threats

Residents of a Corporate Area community have been issued with death threats by their neighbours for daring to cross over into their territory in search of " a little water".

In making the startling revelation in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Angela Brown Burke, the member of parliament (MP) for St Andrew South West, said the issue requires urgent intervention.

"It is true, so I have to tell you that individuals have attempted to go to a neighbouring community to get water and were chased out. They were threatened that if they come back up there they will not leave alive," Brown Burke said on Tuesday.

The MP's comments were in response to a presentation from National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang about the strides being made in Greenwich Town, where a zone of special operation was declared in July 2020. Chang said that more than $150 million has been invested in the community so far. He pointed to road rehabilitation works, water improvement and zinc fence removal projects as being among the initiatives undertaken thus far.

However, Brown Burke, in whose constituency Greenwich Town falls, said that while pipes have been laid, there are "large sections of the Greenwich town community that just don't have water".

"To make it worse, individuals in this community have to go across the road [and] up the road to get water," the MP said.

She told fellow legislators that community members and political leaders have had to step in to ensure the threats do not materialise.