Improved Sewerage System for Three Corporate Area Communities

Just over 3,000 residents of Majestic Gardens, Seaview Gardens, and Riverton City in St. Andrew will benefit from rehabilitation works to be carried out on sewerage facilities serving those communities.

This will be done at a cost of $745 million, under the National Water Commission’s (NWC) Sector F Sewerage Systems Rehabilitation Project.

Contracts for the 24-month project were signed on January 9 by Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change Minister, Hon. Robert Pickersgill and executives of the NWC, and civil engineering firm, Ashtrom Building Systems Limited, which will execute the project, at the Ministry’s New Kingston offices.

Outlining the scope of works, Mr. Pickersgill informed that this will entail: replacing, where necessary, existing pipes; designing and establishing appropriate collection and conveyance systems to upgrade, retrofit and extend the present network; pipe trenching; construction of all the required manholes; and investigating and establishing the current and future needs of the sewerage system, to ensure its sustainability over a minimum period of 25 years, after the project’s completion.

Benefits which are expected to accrue to the beneficiaries include: improved collection of sewage from the over 3,255 residential and commercial customers, institutions, and schools; reduction and eradication of water borne diseases; reduction in the maintenance and operation costs by eliminating the constant need for clearing sewerline blockages, repairing damaged sewerlines and reinstating disturbed roadways; and regularization of existing consumers of the services.

Explaining the rationale for the project, the Minister noted that all three communities have, “for some time”, been plagued by problems related to population growth and an “ageing and inadequate” sewerage collection and conveyance system.

“The Government, through the National Water Commission, is taking quick and decisive action to mitigate the health risks to residents of these communities as well as any impacts on the quality of water in the Kingston Harbour, from discharges,” he added.

“The project will rehabilitate the sewerage systems in the three communities…to allow for the effective collection and conveyance of raw sewage to the recently built Soapberry sewage treatment plant. At the Soapberry plant, waste will be properly treated and effluent disposed of in a manner that meets the National Environment and Planning Agency’s (NEPA) standards,” Mr. Pickersgill assured.

In his remarks, Ashtrom’s Factory General Manager, Yuval Maoz, in welcoming his company’s selection to execute the project, assured that the firm is committed to delivering high standard of work on this latest venture, similar to what they have been doing in their 40 years of operation in Jamaica.

Mr. Maoz also assured that Ashtrom will work closely with the communities in implementing the project’s provisions, and appealed for the support and co-operation of the residents and other stakeholders.