Jodi-Ann Gilpin, Gleaner Writer

DAVID GEDDES, vice-president for marketing and communications at the National Water Commission (NWC), has estimated that some 100,000 of its customers are still without water supply.

Geddes was unable to give a timeline as to when there will be full restoration. However, he said the commission is working assiduously to have water supply restored to all of its customers.

The communications vice-president said a number of its facilities are still without power, which has posed serious challenges for the commission.

"We still have a number of our systems that are down and without power, some are still operating on single-phase power, which still can't run our pumps," he said.

serious challenges

Geddes also pointed out that the Mona facility has been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

"The facility in Mona has been having some serious challenges, and so that area along with Papine and surrounding areas are still without water or having water challenges," he declared.

Geddes told The Gleaner that the commission has to be sharing some of the supply in order to alleviate some of the problems.

"What we have been doing is sharing some of the water supply so, for example, since Wednesday, we had to divert some of the supply in the Boulevard area to Portmore because Portmore is such a big area, so we have been doing a lot of sharing, not limiting anyone's supply, but we have to do that to alleviate some of the pressure," he said.

In the meantime, Geddes urged customers for patience as they work to restore the water supply.

jodi-ann.gilpin@gleanerjm.com