Let it flow

Real estate investors are being assured by the Government that it is committed to establishing environments that will support the rapidly evolving market.

Senator Matthew Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, while addressing the launch of the Re/Max Jamaica Conference and Expo in St Andrew yesterday, identified the primary issues he said typically impact development and the real estate market – sewage, water and sanitation.

Samuda pointed out that the Government was working diligently to find solutions for these issues and that it was also looking to create opportunities for future development, innovation, investment, and growth across all parishes.

Noting that infrastructure was the basis of a growing real estate industry, Samuda said there has been “over the last eight years, significant [and] unprecedented investments in our infrastructure”.

The minister said: “They weren’t contemplated before, largely [because] we didn’t have the fiscal space but also, we didn’t understand – and I don’t think that philosophically we understood that to have a growing, thriving economy also meant seeing cranes in the sky. It meant a continually changing face of our infrastructure and it meant getting local and international investors to take us seriously.”

While highlighting last year’s record-breaking high temperatures – especially during the summer months – which led to one of the worst droughts the island has ever experienced, Samuda pointed out that Jamaica, in particular, saw the detrimental consequences of climate change on water supply.

“Kingston and St Andrew, in the worst of the drought in February of last year, experienced a 12 and a half million-gallon shortfall. A lot of water,” he said.

“Now, when persons say ‘Well, how do you contemplate continuing increasing of density, continued investments?’ Well, it’s because we have a plan for it ...[one] where there is an investment programme,” he added.

Samuda continued that there were plans that have already gone through the ministry’s public investment appraisal branch and public sector investment programme process and that some have been confirmed, signed, approved and are ready to break ground.

FUTURE INVESTMENTS

He disclosed that, on February 16, there is scheduled to be a formal groundbreaking ceremony, one that will consist of tractors, and the start of construction on a project in the Rio Cobre water treatment plant.

“Now, that plant will provide some 15 and a half million gallons into Kingston and St Andrew daily. So, in the worst of your droughts, we have already made the investments, we’ve already made the arrangements to ensure that within 24 months or less, you will have 15 and a half million gallons available. That deals with your current population size,” he assured.

Additionally, he mentioned work being conducted on the environmental health of some of the nation’s older water wells.

“I can tell you that there is a long story well near Marescaux Road. Last year, we started the rehabilitation process of this and in testing the water, I can tell you that the tests are excellent, the results are very excellent coming from Ministry of Health [and] that will provide some two million additional gallons of water, largely from the area of KPH (Kingston Public Hospital) stretching into Vineyard Town, another area that we know is prime for development, so we’re up to 17 million gallons,” he said.

“The distribution network of the water commission has suffered from chronic underinvestment, but we’ve changed that, and how have we changed that and where is it and where we are gonna change it? There are parishes in this country where our non-revenue water is 70 per cent ... in 2016, we started the work on the Kingston and St Andrew non-revenue water pilot project. What that has done ... it has brought non-revenue water in Kingston and St Andrew from 71 per cent down to 37 per cent,” he said.

BIGGEST OBSTACLE

But, according to Samuda, the distribution network of the National Water Commission posed the biggest obstacle for the nation’s major real estate markets – the Corporate Area; St James; Ocho Rios, St Ann and Mandeville, Manchester – in relation to water.

He noted, however, that the Government expects that non-revenue water will stabilise, between 18 and 20 per cent, by 2030.

According to Samuda, the Government has already gone to market and is currently seeking an international partner to conduct a national non-revenue water drive that targets 20 per cent leakage, down from 70 per cent in most parishes, to ensure that other parishes will also benefit from effective water distribution. He continued that the administration has already gone to tender with the expectation of meeting this target by 2033.

Speaking on the issue of sewage, another “basis of development”, Samuda declared that the Government plans to go to market with a designed product that would guarantee that soaker capacity can be doubled, ensuring that sewage capacity increases to support continued development.

“What I’m trying to assure you all, as pioneers of the real estate industry, is that the foundation of your industry is being tended to by the Government. We’re making the investments that you need us to make in water and sanitation,” Samuda said.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com