THE GOVERNMENT of Jamaica is to spend over $10.5 billion in a move to reduce the volume of unaccounted for water (UFW) at the National Water Commission (NWC).
Answering questions posed by his Opposition counterpart, Dr. Horace Chang, Minister of Water and Housing, Donald Buchanan, informed his colleagues on Tues-day, March 4 at Gordon House, that some US$210 million was to be spent on four water projects, which would address the issue of unaccounted-for water at the NWC.
Whilst divulging that the UFW was 60 per cent, he said one half of that was estimated to be due to theft and the other half, to leakage, which was expected, given the age of the pipelines throughout the country, many of which needed replacing.
Mr. Buchanan explained moreover that the UFW was a rough estimate, because in order to have accurate figures, both the consumption billed and the water produced must be accurately metered, since the UFW was the difference between the total water produced and total consumption billed.
He noted that whilst the vast majority of consumers had been metered, many sources were still not metered, and that efforts were under way to increase the metering of both customers and sources.
The major initiatives, which were outlined by the Water and Housing Minister, on which the funds are to be spent, and which are to assist in addressing the issue of the high volume of unaccounted-for water raised by Dr. Chang, four projects in St. Catherine, Kingston, Portland and Hanover.
Minister Buchanan informed the House of a US$80 million Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) Water Supply and Rehabilitation Project, which is to be financed by the Government (GoJ) and the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC). He said consultants had been selected and engineering designs commenced late last year on the project, which targets St. Catherine for reduced UFW. This would require replacing old mains, metering and pressure zoning, detecting and repairing leaks, and a customer survey to update the billing database.
Another project, which targets Kingston and St. Andrew for a reduction in UFW, is the US$50 million Kingston Water and Sanitation Project, he said, which is being funded by GoJ and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and for which consultants have been selected and work commenced.
Similarly, the Port Antonio Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage Project costing US$40 million, will see some aspects of it addressing the issue of UFW in that area. The project is to be funded by GoJ and the European Investment Bank (EIB), and consultants have been pre-qualified and bids invited for the engineering studies. Bids are due on April 7, 2003.
Minister Buchanan said the fourth major initiatives was the Great River/Lucea Water Supply Project, which is to be funded by GoJ, the French Government, a French bank and a number of local financial institutions. He told the House that engineering designs had been completed and the contract for the construction work had been signed, assuring that some aspects of the project would address UFW reduction in Lucea.
