NWC to introduce new water restrictions
Published:Monday | August 10, 2015 | 12:00 AM
Come tomorrow, customers in sections of the Corporate Area are to experience increased water restrictions.
Addressing a press conference to announce the new restrictions, acting president of the National Water Commis-sion (NWC), Mark Barnett, revealed that the decision was taken to introduce the additional restrictions because of the continued decrease in storage capacity at the Hope and Mona supply systems.
"As a result of the reduced input and output from the major systems serving Kingston and St Andrew, effective Wednesday, August 12, as a result of the low inflows into the Hope, and Mona systems ... we are now serving most customers on an alternate basis, but because of the low flows we will now have to increase that restriction to every two days," Barnett said.
"For those customers who will receive water on Wednes-day, they will now receive water not on Friday but on Saturday," he explained.
He also pointed out that the two-day supply restriction will only apply to customers served by the Mona and Hope water-supply systems. As a result, the areas that will be most affected by the increased restrictions include: August Town, Hope Flat, Papine, Gordon Town, Mona Heights, Mona
Road, Beverly Hills, Hope Pastures, Gordon Town, Kintyre, Vineyard Town and sections of Mountain View.
According to Barnett, "The other areas of Ziadie Gardens and Dunrobin, those areas have been seeing improved water supply as a result of modifications that we have done in the network. Those areas are augmented by the Tulloch Spring water supply system".
With regard to contingency plans for essential services, such as hospitals, Barnett said water would be trucked to these facilities on days when water is locked off.
It is hoped that with the activation of additional wells, the NWC will be able to decrease the restrictions over time.
The water company has been seeking to add 4.5 million more gallons of water to the daily supply system through the use of several wells across the Kingston Metropolitan Area.