Showers not enough to lift water restrictions -NWC

Acting president of the National Water Commission (NWC) Mark Barnett yesterday said that water restrictions would remain in place despite some amount of showers this week.

"We received some inflows into the Hermitage system but nothing of significance to allow us to lift the restrictions," Barnett told The Gleaner. "There were no appreciable inflows from the Hope and Yallahs supply sources," he added.

Barnett said his focus was on the restrictions as he allows the National Meteorological Service to pronounce on drought conditions. "But the situation remains pretty much the same," he said.

Forced by a prolonged dry spell that precipitated a sharp decline in inflows to the systems, the NWC, last month, heightened restrictions on customers in the Kingston Metropolitan Area served by the Hermitage/Constant Spring, Mona, Hope, and Seaview systems, which resulted in consumers receiving water supplies on alternating days.

water-management plan

The water-management plan means that areas that are supplied on a Tuesday would then be supplied again on the subsequent Thursday and Saturday, while the areas supplied on the Wednesday of that week would be supplied again on the subsequent Friday and Sunday, the NWC said.

While some areas in the Corporate Area would continue to receive supplies daily, either based on the system that serves them or where they are located on the network, most areas would receive water every other day, the NWC stated.