St James Central Member of Parliament (MP) Heroy Clarke wants the water shortage issues currently affecting Appleton Hall and surrounding areas to be resolved before the new Western Children and Adolescent Hospital is official opened.

Clarke, who was speaking during Thursday’s Constituency Development Fund consultation meeting at Cornwall College in Montego Bay, said the water supply challenges in the area, which is already complicated by an outdated pump in Appleton Hall, will worsen once the medical facility, which is located on the grounds of the Mount Salem-based Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), is opened.

“What has happened is that in the 1960s, when the Appleton Hall’s pump was put in place, there were about 300 or 400 houses. That same pump today has not changed, although they have fixed it on so many occasions, but it is now serving Rose Heights, which has grown leaps and bounds, plus Cornwall Courts, which has some 20,000 households and growing, and it has to serve Rosemount Gardens, Farm Heights, Green Pond, Salt Spring, and all the way up to Flower Hill,” said Clarke.