Gov’t Focused on Water Management

Minister of State for Transport, Water and Works, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, has said that Government was placing focus on water management, to ensure the availability of adequate and reliable water supplies for all Jamaicans for the future.
Addressing the official launch of the Mango Valley/Huddersfield Water Supply scheme in St. Mary recently, Dr. Ferguson said it was important for the country to recognize that water was a finite and vulnerable resource, which was not readily available to millions of people around the world.
He noted that Jamaica was fortunate, as 70 per cent of citizens had access to potable water and the aim was to supply all households by 2010.
This ambition, he said, was ahead of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of reducing to half by the year 2015, the number of people worldwide, who do not have access to potable water.
Stating that the Water Resources Authority had a very important role to play in the process, he pointed out that the organization continued to have a critical role in the regulation, resource allocation and conservation of the country’s water resources.
Asserting that government would be relentless in its efforts to conserve and protect the water resources of the country and improve supplies to communities, Dr. Ferguson said the aim was to ensure the economic and social development of rural communities and improve the lives of citizens.