The Drought Management Committee (DMC) has announced a multi-stakeholder approach to mitigate the effects of the meteorological drought currently impacting the island.

Immediate measures were summarized by the National Water Commission (NWC) during yesterday’s weekly meeting of the Committee, which was held virtually and chaired by Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC), Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, who has responsibility for the water portfolio.

The measures include, but are not limited to:

1.    Key stakeholder partnership in the water sector, with MEGJC as the lead, to develop a comprehensive and cohesive programme focusing on the importance of water conservation to effectively manage the impacts of the drought.

2.    The Meteorological Service of Jamaica will guide the NWC in the trucking of the water to the most affected areas. At present, the targeted areas include Eastern St. Thomas, sections of Portland, and St. Mary, but trucking will also occur in other parishes severely affected by drought.

3.    The Jamaica Constabulary Force will receive the schedule for the trucking of water, to ensure the delivery of water in a safe environment.

4.    In addition, 1,000 four-hundred-gallon black tanks will be provided for the worst affected areas, particularly those areas where storage is inadequate.

5.    The NWC will also continue to regulate the water supply to customers on a 12-hour supply modality.

6.    Another measure entails the transfer of water from St. Catherine to assist with the supply in Kingston and St. Andrew. The assurance was given that this measure would be undertaken, without creating any undue disadvantage for the residents of St. Catherine.

The 3-month period, February to April 2023, forecast from the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, indicates that rainfall is expected to be below-normal to near-normal across the island for the remainder of the dry season and ahead of the transition to the early wet season.

The Drought Management Committee, a sub-committee of the Integrated Water Resources Management Council (IWRMC), now convenes weekly following a directive from Prime Minister the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, given the intensification of the drought.

The Prime Minister also announced the allocation of an additional $100 million for the trucking of water into mostly rural areas that are in dire need.

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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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Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, says the National Water Commission (NWC) is reaping success in its efforts to reduce Non-Revenue Water (NRW) in the Corporate Area and Portmore in St Catherine.

“We are seeing where this is bringing about significant benefits in Portmore. In installing these new pipes and measuring our pressure properly, we have saved 30-odd percent of our energy usage thus far in Portmore”, the Minister said.

Non-Revenue Water refers to water that is lost from theft or broken pipes for which the NWC cannot receive income.

Minister Samuda highlighted that in the Kingston Metropolitan Area, the project has already cut NRW from some 71 percent to under 38 percent. He added that a rollout of the full NRW programme is expected this year.

“A large part of this NRW project will be the mobilization of laying of pipes and pressure monitors, ensuring that we are not either under pumping or over pumping”, he stated.

The Minister, who was speaking yesterday (Thursday, February 16, 2023), at the Commissioning of the 50,000-gallon Storage Tank Replacement Project in York Town Clarendon, pointed to the need for the NWC to build infrastructure that will fundamentally change its capacity to store, process and deliver water.

Energy consumption, he said, is a large part of that thrust and pointed out that over 30 percent of funds collected by the NWC go into paying the Jamaica Public Service.

He added that projects, which reduce the need for pumping hours as well as gravity-fed systems and tackle leaks are critical, as the NWC is actively looking at all opportunities to utilize renewable energy and to manage its consumption.

He pointed to the importance of reporting water theft, noting that it was essential to the stability of all systems being rolled out by the NWC across Jamaica, and urged citizens to work with the NWC.

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Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, announced that the government has allocated $50 million to assist the National Water Commission (NWC) and the Municipal Corporations with the trucking of water, up until the end of the 2022/2023 Financial Year.

Noting that the island is currently experiencing meteorological drought, Minister Samuda disclosed that the decision followed a recent meeting with Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, during which he instructed that an analysis is done to determine the areas with the greatest impact by the current lack of rainfall.

“He asked that we design a trucking programme to support the areas most impacted in partnership with the NWC and indeed the local authorities and that we give some support that carries us up until the end of the budget year”, the Minister disclosed.

Stating that Jamaica is no stranger to the impacts of drought, Minister Samuda explained that during November and December last year, every parish received rainfall that was less than their 30- year average.

“Although the data for January is preliminary the trend appears to have continued, and in fact worsened. We had expressed a hope for greater rainfall earlier in the year. We have not received it, so I ask citizens to be very cognizant of how we use the water that we do have.  We are asking for conservation, and we are asking for understanding” the Minister urged.

Minister Samuda was speaking today (Thursday, February 16, 2023) at the Commissioning of the 50-thousand-gallon Storage Tank Replacement Project, in York Town, Clarendon.

The project was completed at a cost of 22-million dollars under the NWC’s Tank and Pump Rehabilitation for Operational Efficiency Improvement Programme.

Six hundred residents of the mostly agricultural communities of York Town, Howells Content, Bullards Content, Hopewell, Parnassus, Denbigh Drive, Foga Road and Four Paths Settlement, are expected to benefit from the project.

The Minister committed that the NWC would continue to make investments in the community.

The NWC’s Tank and Pump Rehabilitation for Operational Efficiency Improvement Programme, involves the procurement of thirty-three (33) tanks at a cost of approximately $600 million.
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Residents in Dalvey, St Thomas can now breathe a sigh of relief following the commissioning of a $20 million water storage facility yesterday (Wednesday, February 8).

Speaking at the commissioning of the Frazer Hill Storage Tank Replacement Project, Minister with responsibility for Water, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda said last year, every parish benefitted from capital works carried out by the National Water Commission, NWC.

“When we looked at the range of capital projects, there is no parish that has been left out. Every single parish, last year, received capital works from the NWC to expand the utility footprint of the Commission. There is repair work but not new capital projects in every parish”, stated Minister Samuda.

Minister Samuda added that this year, “not only will we be in every parish, but we will be no more than 5 kilometers from almost every single township in Jamaica with capital works this year, a feat that hasn’t been achieved before…What you are seeing is a bit of the renaissance for the National Water Commission”.

The Frazer Hill Storage Tank Replacement Project marks the first of many that will be undertaken by the NWC, this year. The Glass-Fused-To-Steel Bolted Tank at Frazer Hill which has a storage capacity of 50,000 gallons will serve approximately 4,500 residents.

In the meantime, Minister Samuda disclosed that the country is currently in the throes of a Meteorological Drought.

He advised that the Government, in the coming weeks, will announce the steps to be taken in response to the Drought. The response, he says, will include national public education to ensure that everyone is on board.

“While the situation is not chronic, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has asked to be briefed and for a programme to be developed so that he can put the appropriate measures in place”, explained Minister Samuda.

“We’re at the point where inflows are below outflows. So, we are seeing depletions in our major systems at a rate that we don’t want to see”, the Minister noted, adding that “We’re not going to wait until things are chronic in the way that we used to, and take action after”.

Residents were urged to conserve on their use of water, and to report leaks to the NWC.

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