NWC to improve water supply in eastern parish

The National Water Commis-sion (NWC) has embarked on a $300-million project to improve water supply in areas of St Thomas.

Chairman of NWC Senator Aubyn Hill, alongside Member of Parliament for Western St Thomas James Robertson, on Tuesday led a tour of the affected water plants in the parish to examine the challenges facing operations in the area.

Speaking with reporters, Communications Manager Charles Buchanan revealed that NWC has identified three major projects that are taking place in St Thomas in an effort to stem the long-standing issue and to supply water to its customers in the parish.

“The three projects are the White Hall Water Supply Improvement Project, which is a rehabilitation project to be done for the White Hall Water Facility that would significantly improve the capacity of performance of that treatment plant.

“Two other projects which are already physically under way with the drilling of two new well are the Springfield and Southaven water facilities,” he said.

programmes under way

Buchanan revealed that the two well-drilling expansion programmes are well under way, noting that the wells are almost completed and that they are now awaiting approvals from the Water Resource Authorities to extract some 800 US gallons per minute from the new wells to improve water supply to the affected areas.

“All of those projects represent part of the commission’s continuous thrust to improve service to existing customers and to enable us to provide service to persons who, previously, were unable to be served because of inadequacies in our system capacity or network.

“The cost overall is $300million,” he said, adding that the NWC will have the systems in operation in “a matter of months.”

Meanwhile, residents of Yallahs who are served by the Southaven Water Plant have raised concerns about a lack of running water they have been experiencing for the past few months.

One resident explained that though she has a water tank, she is unable to use it because of the current water shortage in the area.

“The water system and pressure wasn’t always the best, but at least we used to get a little from the pipe. Enough to use the shower and so forth. Sometimes we would get enough at nights that would fill the tank, then that stopped.

“We would turn our pipes on overnight, and in the mornings we would have a bucket to bathe from or use in the kitchen.

“Even that has stopped, too,” she said, adding that it is difficult to truck water to her house, based on its location.

Another resident, who gave his name as Clifton Lane, said his community has been without running water for over a decade.