A contract, valued at 163.5 million dollars, was signed this morning (October 24), for the rehabilitation of one-point-eight (1.8) kilometers of road  from Friendship to Hurlock in St. James, under Phase Three of the comprehensive roadworks being undertaken on the 19-kilometer stretch of road from Fairfield to Point in the parish.

Speaking at this morning’s signing ceremony at Jamaica House, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness noted that the proposal was for the entire stretch from Fairfield to Point to be rehabilitated in three phases as it would prove too costly to undertake the entire project all at once.

“If we did it at once, it would cost probably about 1.5 billion dollars just to do a 19 kilometer road.  So that means several other communities in Jamaica would not be attended to, so we had to do it in small pieces”, the Prime Minister stated.

To date, two (2) phases have been completed along the Fairfield to Point corridor.

Under Phase One, 1.6 kilometres of roadway was rehabilitated between Fairfield and Retirement, from the Fairfield Bridge to Taylor Avenue at a cost of $74,112,000.  Phase Two saw another 2.3 kilometres of the roadway being rehabilitated starting at Taylor Avenue to Friendship at a cost of $114,416,750.

Phase Three is being funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC) through the Maintenance of Secondary Roads Programme.

Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Hon. Clifford Warmington noted that the rehabilitation of the road was critical, as it is in a deplorable condition, and is heavily used, as it is one of the gateways to upper St. James and links the parish of St. Elizabeth.

“It connects the rural section of Southern St. James such as Maroon Town, and Garland, Eddersle, Maggoty and Balaclava in St. Elizabeth  with the city of Montego Bay.  Along this controlled section are several residential communities  commercial entities and tourism factions such as, Estuary Housing Scheme, Johns Hall Adventure Tours, Hall Aggregates Crighton Quarry and the Retirement landfill”, Minister Warmington noted.

The design for Phase three comprises more than 50 millimeters sub-base, 150 millimeters base course and 75 millimeters of asphaltic concrete overlay will be added.

“This design is necessary based on the high traffic volume, especially with the heavy duty vehicles associated with the quarries, landfill and all the commercial activities in that locale.  Additionally, the impact of these large units on the pavement, as they often exceed the limit of their axle loads, necessitates this design”, Minister Warmington added.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda, on a tour of the Greenwich Town Sewage Site today said emergency procurement of services has started to address the odour affecting the surrounding community.

The Minister led a delegation comprising Member of Parliament for St. Andrew South Western, Dr. Angella Brown-Burke, senior team of the National Water Commission and the MEGJC to evaluate concerns that were expressed by residents in the area.

“The residents of Greenwich Town and the immediate environs have had to deal with this untenable situation for too long. I know MP and the team at NWC have been in dialogue to look at short, medium and long term solutions to the problem,” Minister Samuda said.

The team has completed the engagement of an excavator to uncover one of the four tanks to facilitate measurements and calculations.

“We are here today to start the apology process because it won’t be a short term process to apologize for years of unfair treatment. And we are also here to assure residents that preliminary work has already started,” Minister Samuda said.

Minister Samuda said in November, medium term actions will commence to further alleviate the odour.

There will be the engagement of a Design Engineer to configure gravity feed flow from the Soapberry inlet chamber to the tanks, and the wet well (the actual dump location).

The Design Engineer will also retrofit the digester into a cesspool dump bay, primary clarifier and a pre-biological treatment tank during a span of 1-2 months.

On a longer term basis, the team will engage a  construction engineering company to undertake works including establishing boundaries and erecting a fence, with an entrance gate to control the illegal dumping at nights.

According to Minister Samuda, these measures will be joined with increased police control and will greatly alleviate the overflow and spillage at the sewage site.

Plans are also in place for sensitization sessions with residents in the new year where MP Brown-Burke, NWC and the Ministry can present amicable solutions for all stakeholders.

Over 10,000 residents from Sligoville communities will receive improved service delivery following the Commissioning of the Sligoville Water System Upgrade in St. Catherine by Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda, yesterday (October 13).

The communities of Pleasant Farm, Keith Hall, Top Jackson, Top Kensington, Bottom Kensington, Stanberry Grove, Sligoville Main Road, and James Mountain are receiving more than 14 hours of service from the $34.4 million upgrade at the Sligoville pumping station number four.

“Many Thursdays we have also been installing 50,000 and 100,000-gallon tanks. I think in looking at the area and when I go through with VP Kerr, MP we will probably have to look at how we bring reliability to the space. We have seen in other areas where you are putting these 100,000-gallon tanks, it increases the reliability and connectivity for more hours per day,” Minister Samuda said.

Member of Parliament for St. Catherine North Central, Natalie Neita-Garvey, said she appreciated the upgrades as what existed before was inadequate.

“Today, I believe we have received three new pumps and we are expecting three additional. What was discussed and approved was $290 million to get the new pumps to come to Jamaica. For this MP to get the $290 million today when resources are scarce, I am truly grateful,” MP Neita-Garvey added.

She also concurred with Minister Samuda that even though citizens have a right to water, they also have a responsibility to pay their bills as the National Water Commission has to pay high electricity bills because of storing, processing, distribution, and pumping of water.

Minister Samuda also mentioned several upgrades to NWC’s distribution network in the next financial year.

“We will start the process of changing out about 900 million to a billion dollars of pumps annually to remove the oldest, unreliable electricity-intensive pumps from the system so that our usage also goes down,” he said.

Minister Samuda added that a national Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Programme will be announced which is expected to change the piping network, manage the pressure, ensure that pumps are properly calibrated, and ensure that residents get water in their pipes.

In partnership with MIYA Jamaica, the NWC launched in Kingston & St. Andrew, and St. Catherine the NRW Programme which aims to reduce the water that is either stolen or leaks out from bad pipes; both were launched in 2015 and April 2022 respectively.

Phase one of the Sligoville upgrade was completed in July 2022, and Phase two is expected to be completed at the end of December 2022.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda, said with Supreme Ventures’ launch of its 1.7-megawatt solar facility, Jamaica is one step closer to the advancement of its climate change mitigation efforts.

Making his address at the official launch of the Caymanas Park Solar Energy Project today, Minister said, “Mitigation primarily is about cutting emissions; Jamaica has already indicated that it will move 50% of its energy generation into renewables, and the size of this plant is a good step this morning”.

Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), operators of Caymanas Park, announced that they have installed a solar energy system at their Portmore location as part of their modernization and sustainability strategy.

In addition to reducing the carbon footprint of the track operations, this investment will allow SVREL to redirect resources to improve other aspects of the park and the horseracing industry in general, which provides employment to hundreds of Jamaicans.

“Horse racing generally is the 17th most consumed sport globally. One thing we are sure of is that no economic activity will thrive without making the changes it needs to ‘green’ itself. It is the only way we are going to build in resilience and the only way we are going to build in the capacity for the prosperity we have been preaching,” Minister Samuda said.

The Minister added that he is encouraged by Supreme Ventures’ step to reduce its carbon footprint and welcomed additional private sector partnerships in the fight against climate change.

“This is a major step, now that step can’t be only done by Government, it will take private sector investment, it will take private sector partnerships with the government to ensure that we put in place the amount of renewable that is required. As well as how we go about changing our national fleet, both publicly owned and privately owned to electric vehicles”.

Minister Samuda noted that electric vehicles have a clear advantage as there is a 60% savings on fuel usage weekly, with or without the use of renewables. He encouraged operators to consider moving in this direction with the Government.

The Government is taking further steps to increase its capacity to respond to water disruptions across the island with the procurement of eight water trucks valued at $105 million, which will be added to the National Water Commission’s fleet.

Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Most Hon. Andrew Holness, handed over the trucks to the NWC at a ceremony held on the agency’s Marescaux Road compound today.

The trucks with an estimated capacity of 35,000 gallons of water were procured from Tank Weld Limited. This will bring the number of operational water trucks at the NWC to 16.

“In 2020, just as we were going through the pandemic we were also going through a drought. And indeed, a part of Manchester had no water. We were not able to respond in an effective way because the parish council did not have water trucks and the NWC did not have water trucks, as was pointed out last time that an administration had purchased water trucks was under the Bruce Golding administration in 2009,” the Prime Minister said.

Prime Minister Holness informed that this gap in the water utility company’s armour prompted the need for additional water trucks to maintain regular supply to citizens.

“We took the decision that we have to make an investment in the ability of the NWC to respond. The NWC had no standing capacity to respond as a utility if there was a break in the service to customers. So, we made a decision to allocate capital resources to buy these trucks,” he said.

Prime Minister said the trucks represent an Investment in the resilience of the water utility and its ability to respond to a shock.

“These trucks primarily will ensure that police stations, schools and other critical public service infrastructures if water were to be down, the NWC will be able to respond and provide water and keep the economy going,” Prime Minister Holness added.

In his greetings, Minister without Portfolio in the MEGJC, Sen. Hon. Matthew Samuda, noted that the issue of water security is not lost on the Government especially with the changing climate.

“Jamaica’s weather patterns have become particularly erratic. It has made it difficult for us to plan in terms of what our source supply will be from our water systems. But additionally one of the things that we have seen, certainly from the eastern end of the island is that because of the volume of work intended to bring prosperity to the people, during that work there is sometimes additional disruption to households and indeed businesses, this increased capacity will significantly allow us to be responsive to the needs of citizens and to the needs of businesses,” he said.

The NWC will be deploying the eight water trucks by the end of the week to its six regions: Kingston, St. Andrew, and St. Thomas; Clarendon and St. Catherine; St. Mary, St. Ann, and Portland; Manchester and St. Elizabeth; St. James and Trelawny; and Hanover and Westmoreland.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC), Sen. Hon. Matthew Samuda, said approximately 9,000 persons will receive improved water security from a National Water Commission project that will target the Non Pariel, Retirement, and Orange Hill region in Westmoreland.

“This approximately $475 million project sees the major communities of Mount Airy, Good Hope, Orange Hill, Retirement, Brighton, Hog Haven, and Whitehall benefitting from a system that is designed to serve up to 9,000 persons,” said Minister Samuda today during the official commissioning ceremony for the water project.

The improved system has the capacity to handle 500,000 gallons per day (2.25 million liters), and is outfitted with two pumping stations, two storage reservoirs, and transmission and distribution pipelines.

Also in attendance at the ceremony were the Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western, Morland Wilson; Mayor of Savanna-la-mar and Councillor for Negril Division, Bertel Moore; NWC’s Regional Manager for Westmoreland & Hanover, Jeffrey Smith, and other senior representatives from the NWC and MEGJC.

“The Non Pariel Water Project illustrates what a unified Administration along with the citizens of Jamaica can accomplish. This new system was completed by the Rural Water Supply who was instrumental in the design and implementation, and the National Water Commission operates and maintains the system with the help of the team at the Water Resources Authority,” said Minister Samuda.

Construction of the project commenced in 2018 with the execution of the following contracts:

• A contract for the construction of two (2) Pumping Stations at White Hall and Orange Hill.
• Two (2) pipe laying contracts.
• A contract for the construction of a 1.1 million litres Concrete Reservoir at Mount Airy.
• The installation of 250,000 litres Bolted Steel Reservoir at Orange Hill (Woodland).

Minister Samuda ended that this water system forms part of the Government’s mandate to ensure citizens have access to potable and reliable water and is one of several projects commissioned in the past few months aimed at achieving this plan.