Water woes persist even as rains fill dams
Published:Friday | October 18, 2019 | 12:00 AMKaryl Walker/Gleaner Writer
Even as recent heavy rains that have pelted eastern Jamaica, some Corporate Area communities are still experiencing dry pipes.
Mark Murray lives in Duhaney Park, western St Andrew, and is at his wits’ end as to why, after so much rainfall following an extended drought, he is still having problems accessing water for his daily needs of bathing, cooking, and flushing the toilet.
Senator Pearnel Charles Jr, Minister without portfolio for Housing in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Development, who has direct responsibility for water, said communities still plagued by water issues are the victims of operational deficiencies and not a supply shortfall.
“We know there are still difficulties with the people in Duhaney Park, Washington Boulevard, Dunrobin, etc. It is because since 2016, we have had that break in the Ferry pipeline that has reduced the capacity for the NWC (National Water Commission) to push the usual 55.5 million gallons up that stream. So the interim pipe that is there is insufficient to provide the consistent water supply,” Charles told The Gleaner.
SOLUTION COMING
He sought to assure the disgruntled residents that the Government was moving to remedy the issue post haste.
An alternative pipeline solution is in the works and is anticipated to be ready by November, Mark Barnett, NWC president, has said.
But that was little consolation for Murray, who lives with his wife and three daughters.
“From 2016 till now and the pipe can’t fix? So why when there was the drought they couldn’t repair it?” said Murray.
Charles told The Gleaner that in the interim, water would be trucked to the affected communities and said that he had issued specific instructions that those areas be given special attention.
Up to yesterday, the Mona Dam was at 73 per cent capacity, or 587 million gallons of water, while the Hermitage reservoir is at 80.2 per cent, or 316 gallons.
The maximum capacity of Mona is 808.5 million gallons and Hermitage, 393.5 million.
Charles said that the Government is implementing methods to ease the pressure on the supply infrastructure amid the growing population of the Kingston Metropolitan Area.
The minister said that a US$60-million Rio Cobre Content Treatment project is expected to pump an additional 15 million gallons of water into the Corporate Area. Ten wells are slated for rehabilitation.