Jamaican Bottled Water Firms Urged to Help Residents

Generation 2000 (G2K), an affiliate of the Opposition Jamaica Labor Party, has proposed that the government collaborate with private bottling companies to produce additional bottled water for persons who have been deprived of the commodity due to Hurricane Ivan.

"The most immediate need of the thousands of Jamaicans who have sustained extensive destruction to personal property by Hurricane Ivan is drinking water, and the situation has been made worse by the lack of electricity to facilitate pumping by NWC," according to Chris Tufton, G2K president.

In a press statement, Tufton said the major bottlers of carbonated beverages have the technology and capacity to produce a surplus of bottled water within a 24-hour period and already possess a distribution network that makes them capable of supplying the water island-wide over a short period.

"G2K is asking the government to engage the bottling companies in an arrangement which would have the bottlers produce and distribute the surplus of bottled water to the most affected and alleviate the immediate short-term need for drinking water in these areas," he said.

Source: The Jamaica Observer