JSIF Developing 11 Small Water Projects in Five Parishes

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) is currently developing 11 small community based water supply schemes in five parishes across the island.
“These include three in Portland at Bellevue, Norwich/Boundbrook and Bybrook/Skibo; three in St. Catherine at Church Pen, Harkers Hall and Mountain Pass; two in St. Mary at Scotts Hall and Hampstead; two in St. Thomas at Rowlandsfield and Thornton; and one at Pedro River in St. Ann,” State Minister in the Ministry of Water and Housing, Everald Warmington told the House during his contribution to the 2008/09 Sectoral Debate on Tuesday (July 8).
The State Minister noted that these schemes are being developed in areas where it is believed that capital outlay by the National Water Commission (NWC) would not be economically feasible.
“The JSIF therefore fills this gap as part of the fulfillment of its primary mandate, which is poverty alleviation, by finding cost effective ways to provide water to these communities,” he explained.
Mr. Warmington noted that JSIF is only responsible for implementation and the whole question of the sustainability is dealt with through the whole concept of community built and operated systems.
“By doing so, it has been able to reduce capital investment cost and by providing training, the community is able to run the systems. However, what is happening, is that the community is now relying more and more on the JSIF as the overall authority in terms of whatever long term support they need, which is not part of the organization’s mandate,” he said.
The State Minister added that JSIF is also not a permanent body and has a finite life, therefore it is seeking to get a more structured authority within Central Government that will be able to give the community the kind of guidance and long term support it needs in operating and maintaining these systems.
He said it is proposed that an agreement be hammered out among the Ministry, Rural Water and JSIF to see how best such a body could be established to take over the maintenance of the water systems.
“We will be having further discussions on this matter. We will also include the Parish Councils in these deliberations to ascertain what kind of input they will want to have in terms of the operations of the systems,” he said.