Water Ministry Looking at Rain Harvesting and Solar Energy Programme for Remote Schools

Minister of Water and Housing, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, has said that his Ministry is looking at a programme in which schools in remote areas can harvest rain water and solar energy for their regular use.
Dr. Chang made the disclosure while in discussion with officials at the National Water Commission’s (NWC) office in May Pen, Clarendon recently.
He said that the Ministry is in discussion with the Water Resources Authority (WRA) on the programme.
“What we have been talking about at the Ministry is to design a programme to combine rain water harvesting with solar panels to give schools energy plus water, because the truth is that some of the areas may be far from the major supplies,” he said.
He informed that there is a Ministry team that is committed to working on that project and that the WRA is in charge of managing the initiative. “That is something that we have been discussing. We are going to try to speed it up,” he said.
The Water and Housing Minister stated that despite cost constraints the Government is committed to investing in water as a development imperative.
“Water is one of the things that are critical not just to the quality of life but to development …so while we are looking at an investment in things that will ensure the country grows, water is one of them. It has the potential to bring development and we recognise that and we are committed to investing in water in the communities,” he noted.
Referring to the US$215 million Jamaica Water Sector Improvement Programme, on which work with begin this year, the Minister said: “We already committed the biggest block of funds in any infrastructure in Jamaica to water development this year and when we were doing it we made sure there was a large block in there for rural Jamaica.