Work in Progress to Rehabilitate Bogue Water Treatment Plant in St. Ann

Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, has said that work is in progress for the rehabilitation of the Bogue water treatment plant in St. Ann.
“The Bogue water system is one of the most efficient systems that we have in the National Water Commission (NWC). It is a gravity fed system and presently, we have embarked on significant rehabilitation work,” Minister Ferguson told JIS News.
Dr. Ferguson, who undertook a recent familiarization tour of the North Western and North Eastern Water Projects in St. Ann, noted that the Bogue water system was designed originally as a 6 million gallon per day system and that extensive work would be carried out in order to achieve an even greater efficiency in the system.
“We will be spending somewhere in the region of $137 million to overhaul that system”, he said, informing that a sum of $60 million has already been spent to improve the system by 1 million gallons per day and that another $65 million would be spent on almost 2.9 kilometres of extension work going into Mammee Bay.
“In fact, because it is a gravity fed system, the question of our electrical power usage on this particular plant is about the most efficient thing we have across the country and even as it relates to chemical use, that is also at a low level, so an investment in this particular plant is a worthwhile investment for the NWC,” he said.
In relation to other water supply systems, he mentioned that work would also be carried out on the Liberty water system in Northwest St. Ann, as there was a major leakage problem. “We have some problems, because there is a steel tank that has a capacity of about 60,000 gallons and we are having serious problems with leakage of that tank. In fact, we are losing about 15,000 gallons per day. It is to that extent that we are looking at spending some $18 million to refurbish that plant.
Even though it is a seasonal plant, it will make a difference and we expect to have a more reliable source in the area,” the State Minister said.
Dr. Ferguson said that he would be moving on to Western Portland during the course of this week, where he would continue to look at some of the challenges and some of the projects that were being undertaken on water systems.