Additional $1 Billion for Small Community-Based Municipal Water Projects

The Government is to allocate another $1 billion in the 2024/25 fiscal year to support the development of small community-based municipal water projects.

This is in addition to the $7 billion worth of water projects to be undertaken in this fiscal year.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, made the announcement during a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 9).

Mr. Holness informed that Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, will be contacting rural Members of Parliament (MPs) that have small projects.

“I’m saying rural MPs because for those MPs that fall squarely in the utility area, National Water Commission will treat with your water needs. We acknowledge that we are going to be faced with this challenge in an ongoing way, so we’re allocating this special amount of money,” the Prime Minister said.

He further stated that while the money will be available next year, the work to implement the projects starts now.

“You have to select the project; you have to do the engineering and procurement of the materials. By the time all of that is done, you are in the next Budget cycle ready for implementation,” the Prime Minister said.

He also noted that while the projects will be small, many of them will have to go through the public investment assessment process.

Meanwhile, Mr. Holness is encouraging Jamaicans to conserve water due to the current state of the drought conditions affecting Jamaica.

He said that while Jamaica has experienced some rainfall in recent weeks, it is neither evenly distributed nor sufficient to provide respite for affected communities.

Jamaica’s bimodal rainfall pattern consists of two peak periods with higher values of rainfall and corresponding periods of lower rainfall. The primary peak occurs in October and the secondary in May.

The lowest troughs are during the period February to March and the month of July.

Mr. Holness also informed that as of October 2022, the month in which Jamaica would normally receive its highest rainfall total for the entire year, the island has been receiving less-than-average rainfall amounts.

“This continued through November 2022, December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023, with rainfall deficits moving from 21 per cent to 33 per cent, 50 per cent, 68 per cent and then 72 per cent,” he said.

He pointed out that the trend was reversed in March 2023 with only a five per cent deficit, while adding that there were deficits in April.

Mr. Holness also said that the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) has published precipitation outlooks for the Caribbean region for the periods May to July 2023 and August to October 2023.

In the projection covering the period, May to July 2023, Jamaica was assessed to have a 40 per cent chance of below-normal rainfall, with a lower likelihood of receiving normal or above-normal amounts.

For the ensuing period August to October 2023, the chance of below-normal rainfall slips to 25 per cent, with the likelihood of it being above-normal rising to 40 per cent.

Mr. Holness also pointed out that for specific parishes, the outlook for the May-July 2023 period suggests that most of the country will continue to experience below-normal rainfall, with the Met Service projecting that Portland will be hardest hit, followed by other eastern and western parishes.

The Hermitage system and the Mona Reservoir in the Corporate Area are currently at 40 per cent, and 39.5 per cent, respectively.