Drought drains 107 water systems

With more than 100 water systems impacted by the ongoing drought, the National Water Commission (NWC) is making a renewed call for customers to conserve water.

The appeal was made by Dr Phillippa Campbell-Francis, acting vice-president of operations at the NWC, during an Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) webinar on Jamaica’s water-sector challenges.

“As a matter of fact, as of this morning (Wednesday), we have 107 systems impacted by drought conditions at varying stages; we have some facilities that are at zero per cent and some at 40 per from this list of impacted systems,” Campbell-Francis said, while noting that the NWC is monitoring 150 systems during this period.

She said Kingston, St Andrew, St Thomas and other parishes in the northeast region are of major concern.

The Hermitage Dam, which supplies drinking water to more than 40 per cent of the population across the Kingston Metropolitan Area and St Andrew, is down to 40.2 per cent capacity, while the Mona Reservoir is at 33.7 per cent, Campbell-Francis disclosed.

The Seaview and Hope water systems “are also severely impacted outside of what they would be producing normally”, she said.

The El Niño phenomenon is expected to further strengthen, intensifying the hot, dry conditions being experienced over the next six months.

“The El Niño conditions are going to make us go through the worst drought we have ever experienced,” Water Minister Matthew Samuda said recently.

The NWC has implemented islandwide water prohibition orders and tighter supply schedules for customers in sections of the Corporate Area amid the persistent dry conditions.

However, Campbell-Francis said the agency was also taking further steps to ensure customers are served.

“We have been recommissioning our resting wells. We have been trucking water, and we’ve been also pumping in areas where you would have been gravity feeding before,” she said.

“We pay attention to managing sources in the pressures in the network. We have to focus on cleaning sources for small impoundments. We manage storage, and we also ask for public awareness that our customers manage their storage, ensure they have storage, and manage the storage for the days or the hours that they may be out of service,” she added.

NRW PROGRAMME

She lamented the high rate of non-revenue water (NRW) produced by the agency and said the NWC was now in the process of undertaking an islandwide NRW programme.

“This programme is supposed to last for 11 years. The first year is primarily auditing. The next five years, we’ll be focusing on works, and then the next five years, maintenance. And what we’re expecting is that we will be able to move NRW down from the current 70 per cent all the way down to 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, Duane Rowe, director of regulation, policy, monitoring and enforcement at the OUR, is calling for umbrella legislation to facilitate better coordination among water-sector agencies.

He said the legislation could clarify stakeholders’ responsibilities and address gaps in the current framework that require coordination, including information sharing and joint planning.

“Clear mandates and coordination duties would give institutions greater certainty, support long-term planning and enhance investment certainty. A framework could establish how overlapping responsibilities are resolved and decisions aligned, giving providers a clearer basis for committed funds,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com

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