Seven weeks later, and there is still water rationing (if you want to call it that) in many parts of St. Thomas.

The Clock Is Ticking on January 1, 2012 at 10:06 am

I spoke with a friend who lives in the Tutu housing community yesterday. He and his family have not had running water on any regular basis since before Thanksgiving and for the past two weeks, have had water at a maximum of two hours every couple of days.

He described the mad rush to try to use the water when it was running to bathe, only to find that the quality of the water that comes is so rank that his grandchildren have all begun to have skin rashes. If you can’t bathe in it, you can’t cook in it – all it’s good for is priming the toilet to flush – when it’s running.

He described what is happening in the community as people who cannot afford to buy enough water to meet their needs, and the needs of their families, are going from door to door begging – for water for god’s sake.

It’s gotten graphic there – waste that’s piling up in toilets that cannot be flushed; people crawling around in cisterns trying to retrieve a bucket of water to meet a small part of their needs. And this is 2012.

But he also spoke of the anger – the deep seated and simmering anger – of people who have been reduced to little more than animals, foraging for the necessities of survival.

I’ve known this man for 13 years and in all of that time, his attention to the political scene has been glancing at best. I listened to the rage he is feeling toward this Administration and was honestly surprised at how much of the detail of the corruption and indifference is at the top of his mind.

I think the so called “powers that be” should be advised that the dissatisfaction has reached into every corner of this community – even communities that heretofore were content to go about their business and not get involved in the machinations of the political machine.

He warned that if things continue in this way, the next and only lucrative target will be the tourists – the resentment about water going to the cruise ships and away from the people is raging – and that in the absence of any other option, those mindless, clueless ship passengers will be easy prey.

I think somebody better start paying attention. Quite literally, the natives are very restless.