This week, The Anguillian received for publication a list of over twenty issues raised by Form 1 students attending the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, and how those issues may be addressed. The briefly-written matters, in response to a teacher’s question in the classroom, were dubbed “the biggest issues facing Anguilla”.
It is probably amazing what deep and bothersome issues the young minds put forward, as well as some of the bold corrective steps they thought should be taken. Some of the concerns, bothering the young children, include growing issues of crime and violence of varying descriptions; cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and other forms of drug abuse; girls posting nude photos of themselves on the internet; conflict resolution issues, and a number of other social and community matters relating to bad roads, the need for more money in circulation in Anguilla, higher salaries for educators, teaching and caring for the youngsters, high food prices, and alienation of land – robbing upcoming generations of opportunities to own a piece of Anguilla.
One 13-year-old student wrote: Anguilla has a big issue and that issue is not enough water in the country. Not enough water in the country is bad because the people of Anguilla cannot do their chores like wash dishes, clean the house or bathe. The Water Department should build more tanks.
The young and innocent mind may have missed the point that you must first of all have water to put in tanks and therefore the two must be mentioned collectively. The youngster, however, could not have hit on a more disgusting situation and is no doubt a victim of this gross lack of an important service. The lack of water is, indeed, a big issue, one about which there had been repeated public complaints, but with little or no quick action to relieve the situation. It is a good opportunity to raise the issue again and to ask when the people of Anguilla can hope for an end to water rationing.
There have been two steps taken by Government which could have been done a long time ago. One was to pay the outstanding debt owed by the Water Corporation to General Electric for the supply of desalination water from Crocus Bay. The other was to write-off outstanding debt owed to the Water Corporation by a number of inactive consumers since January 2009. If the Government had paid GE their money much earlier, we might not have had the current water problem, and they might not have packed up and leave. These two steps, however, have not in any way addressed the lack of water about which the young student is the latest person to complain.
The Government needs to work closely with the Water Corporation, notwithstanding the fact that it is a statutory body, to establish a new and dependable source of water to meet the needs of the people of the island. With this severe drought, there is a need for the public to urgently hear something about how plans for a new desalination plant at Crocus Bay are progressing – and how close the Water Corporation is to realising that desire. As Anguilla continues to develop, including the construction of new homes, there will be a greater demand for water and the shortage is becoming a most serious matter.
It is issues like this which should find their place on the current political campaign podiums across the island – not the personal attacks and character assassinations one hears ever so often nowadays. Many of our politicians, and social activists, must listen attentively to our young people, and the issues they may have, in order to bring about change and fulfil the demands of Anguilla and its people. The views of our youth must never be discounted or ignored by our leaders or adult folk for, as the Bible says, a little child shall lead them.
