90 Percent of NWC Customers’ Water Supply Restored

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, says the National Water Commission (NWC) has restored water to 90 per cent of its customers whose supply was disrupted during Hurricane Beryl’s passage.

Senator Samuda noted that the post-hurricane restoration effort has been particularly challenging for the remaining 10 per cent which, he said, is the most difficult to service in the best of times.

“That last 10 per cent uses approximately 40 per cent of the pumps because of how scattered our development has been as a nation, post-independence,” the Minister pointed out, while speaking during Friday’s (July 19) sitting of the Senate at Gordon House.

Senator Samuda commended the staff of the NWC and Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) who are engaged in coordinating restoration efforts at the national management level, noting that at the parish level there are daily meetings focusing on the priority pumps.

“The first priority has been met, which is that the pumps serving our hospitals and our infirmaries have been energised at this stage. It doesn’t mean that there’s not damage to lines and supporting infrastructure in the area, but we’re able to supply our hospitals and infirmaries,” he explained.

Senator Samuda said the NWC is now looking at the systems that are most impacted and the ones that will provide water to as many people as possible.

The two systems classified as major, which are still without electricity supplied by the JPS, are Roaring River and Bogues in St. Ann.

“St. Ann was the third worst impacted, in terms of impact to its energy grid in the country. So 79 per cent of the grid was damaged in that area, which impacts water supply from mid-St. Mary to a section of Trelawny. We are working around the clock with JPS to restore lines where there is damage, to replace transformers where they have blown, and we’ve taken it a step further. We are working very hard with local and international partners to get as much support as we can for temporary reprieve and longer-term resilience by way of [alternative] power supply,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, Senator Samuda reiterated that the Government will be making a significant investment in generators to support over 700 pumps between water and sanitation systems to build resilience.

“The first 50 we will target, coming out of this storm, and we are in the process of procuring those; it will cost approximately $750 million. We are working on the short-term, working on the long term and, of course, we are using every available truck in Jamaica to give citizens as much support as we can in the communities that have been out for the longest period,” he further advised.