WITH THE country now experiencing a period of drought, the National Water Commission (NWC) is reporting that some of its systems are already faced with significant challenges.

Corporate public relations manager at the NWC, Charles Buchanan, said while its storage facilities at some of its 460 systems across the island were at a good levels, there are others that have been badly affected by low levels of water.

He was, however, unable to give details about the percentage of water supply systems that were affected.

"We have already begun to feel the impact on some of our systems but we are working and doing the very best we can to ensure we limit the negative effects on our operations and on our service to our customers," He told The Gleaner yesterday.

He added, "But the commission's present transformation plans that we have under way, which are aimed at improving the operations and reliability of our service across the country, whilst they are not designed solely for mitigating dry spells, they will go a far way in helping us to be less vulnerable to low rainfall periods."

Buchanan said the organisation was working to put in place conservative measures to mitigate any likely negative implication from the low rainfall period, but persons were being advised to play their part by conserving on water use.

"We urge customers at all times to practise conservation. We also urge customers to, wherever possible, make sure that they have some storage capacity at home if there were a period of interruption," he added.