| Date: Wed 27-Jul-1994 Paper Page: 5A Publication: Daily Nation Byline: Anthony Blackman HOT PEPPERS, pumpkins and squash once thrived in their fields, the envy of other farmers. Now all that remains of their prized produce are brown stalks and withered vegetables. This is the plight of at least two St. Philip farmers, Miriam Burke and Everton Jackman, who said they were forced to watch daily as their lush green fields turned a dismal brown due to a lack of water. With one voice, they blame the death of the crops -- and with it the loss of thousands of dollars -- on the building of a sluice gate on the Three Houses Spring by John Marshall. However, Marshall has denied that he has deliberately cut off the water supply to the farmers. In fact, he said, he was trying to ensure that everyone who used the spring got an equal amount of the water. He blamed the record low rainfall which the country experienced this year for the low level of water that is coming from the spring. But, that explanation does not sit well with Burke, who has been farming in the area for the past 14 years. She claims that Marshall is channeling the water onto other parts of his land -- in direct breach of a 1713 regulation. According to her, as a result of the acute water shortage caused by the damming of the spring, she has been unable to meet her weekly quota of 200 pounds of hot peppers to the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC). In addition, she said she also lost 5 000 young pepper and tomato seedlings because of the water shortage. Her crop of watermelons was also adversely affected with yields being much smaller than in previous years. "It is only by the grace of God that I endure," Jackman declared as he showed NATION photographer Antonio Miller his four-acre field of dead hot peppers. He, too, has had difficulty meeting his weekly quota to the BAMC. But it is not only Jackman's vegetable fields that are thirsty. His more than 100 dairy cattle are also in need of water. The elderly farmer said he was accustomed to pumping water which ran from the spring and collecting it in a pond on the outskirts. However, that pond is now dry and he must rely on other sources to water his stock and fields. Again, it is not only plants and animals that are feeling the effects of drop in water levels; Herbert Branch, a Bayfield, St. Philip fisherman of many years also voiced concern about the declining number of crayfish in the spring. |