Gov’t Spending Millions to Improve Water Supply Systems in Portland

The government of Jamaica is spending millions of dollars to upgrade water supply projects in Western Portland.
Minister of State for Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, during a recent tour of the area, told residents that in addition to improvement of the White River and Kildare supply, which was recently completed by the National Water Commission (NWC) at a cost of $3.9 million, work has been done under phase one of the Buff Bay/Windsor Castle system.
Phase two, which will include the installation of a storage tank, will be carried out at a cost of $5 million.
In addition, Dr. Ferguson informed, work would begin shortly to upgrade the Fruitful Vale system at a cost of $100 million, while plans are underway to improve the supply capacity of the Lancaster system.
The Water State Minister assured the residents that every effort was being made to provide them with adequate supplies of water in the shortest possible time.
He said that both the Ministry and the NWC were “cognisant of the importance of a reliable water supply in the development of the lives of the people of the affected communities”.
Dr. Ferguson’s tour of Western Portland was a follow-up to a previous visit, to inspect upgrading projects being undertaken by the NWC and to gain first-hand knowledge of water supply problems in the area, to see how these could be best addressed.
A number of communities in the area have been experiencing water shortage for a number of years due to faulty pipelines, which cause disruptions in supplies.