$50m allocated to NWC to ease water shortage

The government has allocated $50 million to assist the National Water Commission (NWC) and municipal corporations across the island with the trucking of water to communities affected by the meteorological drought affecting the island. The allocation will run to the end of the 2022/2023 financial year.

In his address to the commissioning of the 50,000-capacity storage tank replacement project in York Town, Clarendon, on Thursday, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Matthew Samuda, pointed out that in November and December last year, every parish received less than their 30-average mean rainfall.

“Although the data for January is preliminary the trend appears to have continued, and in fact worsened. We had expressed a hope for greater rainfall earlier in the year, we have not received it, so I ask citizens to be very cognisant of how we use the water that we do have. We are asking for conservation, and we are asking for understanding,” Minister Samuda urged.

Under the project which was completed at a cost of $22 million under the NWC’s water tank and rehabilitation for operational efficiency improvement programme, 600 residents of the communities of York Town, Howells Content, Bullards Content, Hopewell, Parnassus, Denbigh Drive, Foga Road and Four Paths Settlement expected to benefit.

The NWC’s tank and pump rehabilitation efficiency improvement programme involves the procurement of the 33 tanks for placement across the island at a cost of about $600 million.