Barnett says NWC managing drought conditions
Published:Tuesday | June 2, 2020 | 4:41 PM
Despite implementing water restrictions in sections of the Corporate Area, president of the National Water Commission (NWC) Mark Barnett today disclosed that the drought has not affected the entity as much as it did in the last two years.
“Yes, we are going into a dry period now [but] I would say, we are not as bad as we were last year in terms of dry period, but yes we would have seen a reduction in system input volume, but that is not a case to say that the system input volume is at the level beyond where every individual can be served,” Barnett disclosed earlier today during a webinar on non-revenue water reduction.
Barnett said the NWC had managed during a really dry period in 2018.
“I tell you, we were able to manage our network without any major dislocation to our customers and we believe the ability to do that was really as a result of the NRW (Non-Revenue Water Programme) that we were undertaking,” he said.
The NWR is being implemented by the NWC with international water efficiency co-management partner Miya Jamaica.
The US$42.5 million five year programme has been implemented in Kingston and St Andrew and is aimed at increasing operational efficiency, growing revenue, and improving service delivery, among other objectives.
“We know dry times are getting longer and those are the new norm, so it makes even more the case for us to be more water efficient in our distribution system and hence even more reason why a NRW programme of this nature and even more reason why we should replicate these activities in other parts of Jamaica and as I have indicated before, other parts of the region, the Caribbean region that is,” he said during the webinar.
The NWC has been implementing major water restrictions for Corporate Area customers since March due to drought conditions.
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