09th January 2010
Gambling Casinos or Drinkable Water, which?

The Editor,
In the words of the Prime Minister of St. Lucia Stevenson King, and Minister of Tourism Allen Chastanet, St Lucia is about to embark on a new adventure that of a luxurious Casino Facility. In the meantime, residents in the Mabouya Valley, Dennery are drinking muddy water infected with bilharzia-like germs – the same germs that plagued the island in the 1960’s prompting the erection of a facility to handle that problem.

What is wrong with those people? Are they too blind to see or too naive to understand that the people’s health is at risk while they are contemplating building casinos and other tourist attractions. While it is true that the erection of a casino facility will no doubt bring in revenue, we must also be mindful that no amount of money can make one healthy.

The health of the people in the Mabouya Valley area continues to be neglected. Where is the minister of Health while all these things are going on? Has he turned a death ear on the people of the valley? What will it take for those in positions to see that the people’s lives are at risk by drinking muddy, unfiltered and untreated water in Mabouya Valley. Will it take a bilharzias epidemic to bring this to the forefront?

The idea of a casino should be placed on the back burner, as it was, until the water problem is solved. The prime minister and his merry men may very well be some of those who can afford water tanks and private treatment plants, but most residents in Mabouya Valley cannot afford the luxury of a water tank.