Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, led an extensive tour of water supply systems in the constituencies of North West St. James and Central St. James yesterday (August 17, 2023).
“We’ve done an extensive water tour looking at issues from Rose Heights all the way up to Flower Hill. The tour culminated in Torado Heights where we looked at two new pieces of infrastructure including two major tanks that we have installed”, Minister Samuda stated.
Minister Samuda was joined on the tour by the Member of Parliament for North West St. James, Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, as well as the Member of Parliament for Central St. James, Heroy Clarke, and senior teams from the National Water Commission, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and the Rural Water Supply Ltd.
“We looked at a programme of work that we will undertake in Rose Heights which admittedly will be done over two budget cycles but will involve significant upgrade of storage at three sites. So, we did see where there is an inadequate amount of storage. This will require close to a million gallons of storage at the appropriate elevations to increase capacity, and this project would be broken into three phases”, explained Minister Samuda.
Minister Samuda affirmed that the government will continue to implement the necessary water infrastructure in the western part of the island.
“As we’ve said on several tours this isn’t the silver bullet. As we know, the aging infrastructure coming as far as Martha Brae reaching all the way around the coast to Sav la Mar, is simply not fit for purpose. We will have to, as a government, work very closely to identify the funds and put in significant investment to ensure that these parts of the puzzle work seamlessly together so that the citizens from Trelawny all the way around to Sav La Mar are able to experience potable water in the pipes 24 hours a day”.
Minister Samuda will visit the Rhyne Park Water Supply Upgrade Project today (August 18, 2023) as part of his tour of water supply systems in St. James.
–30–