With the meteorological drought gripping the island worsening, Prime Minister the Most Hon. Andrew Holness has announced an additional $100 million for the trucking of water into mostly rural areas that are in dire need.

The announcement which was made today, (March 3, 2023) at a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, follows an announcement last month, that $50 million would be made available for trucking water.

“This morning I received another brief, which showed that the initial response was not sufficient as the meteorological drought has worsened. Therefore, I am announcing today, that we will put another 100 million dollars into the response, and the response will be channelled through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, through the Ministry of Local Government and filtering through to the various municipal authorities”.

The Prime Minister noted that in the response, the Ministry of Agriculture cannot be omitted, as the lower rainfalls will have an impact on the agricultural sector, adding that for this phase of the drought response, the focus would be on rural parishes.

“In terms of how the resources will be used, we are going to concentrate on the rural areas that are impacted, because we still have sufficient supplies in our catchment and our treatment facilities and in our reservoirs, even though some of them are showing a decline. As this is the initial phase, we’re going to go case by case, need by need, so we maximize initial response”.

Prime Minister Holness stated that the Members of Parliament will receive an allocation through the Constituency Development Fund. The NWC, he noted, has a critical role to play, pointing out that eight water trucks were delivered to the agency last year November, with another eight currently being purchased. In all of this, the Prime Minister said, Jamaicans also have a duty to conserve water.

“The issues of climate change are real. I know for most Jamaicans that this is not a concern, with all the other issues we have to deal with…but this is where climate change meets your life. A part of becoming a resilient country means having the ability to recover quickly from the crisis, and to survive through crisis, we must be prepared”.

In the meantime, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, noted that the Drought Management Committee will now meet weekly, given the current situation. He noted that apart from the water suppliers and distributors, the Jamaica Constabulary Force is also represented on the Committee.

“We know that when we distribute water by way of trucks into communities, there can be issues with the social cohesion in that space because people are obviously anxious at that time, so we co-ordinate very closely with the police, so they are aware of what we are doing and when we are doing it”.

Senator Samuda added that the Ministry of Health was also heavily involved, particularly in terms of monitoring the quality of water being trucked.

“This is something we have been working on since last year. We’ve looked at the protocols, we’ve looked at the appropriate sampling mechanism, and we’ve looked at how we license these trucks. The trucks that are licensed and are clear to truck water will have readily identifiable markings on them, that the police can identify whether they should or shouldn’t be on the road trucking water”.

The press conference was also addressed by Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., the Meteorological Services and the NWC.

For January 2023, twelve of thirteen parishes recorded below-normal rainfall, with percentages ranging from 8 to 72 of their 30-year monthly means. As a result, many of the NWC surface water sources, which are responsible for more than 70% of the potable water supply on the island, have been impacted by drought conditions due to the continued limited rainfall over several months.

The Met Service of Jamaica is forecasting that the 3-month period of February to April 2023 indicates that rainfall is expected to be below-normal to near-normal across the island for the remainder of the dry season (February and March) and ahead of the transition to the early wet season (April).

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