NWC regulates supply to some St Mary communities amid drought, increases water trucking

Faced with what is shaping up to be severe drought conditions, the National Water Commission (NWC) is regulating supply to some communities in the eastern section of St Mary and its environs, while increasing the trucking of water.

The move by the NWC comes against the background of the majority of its water sources and supply facilities experiencing significantly low water levels, which continue to decrease with each passing day.

NWC's Regional Manager for North East, Richard Williams, on Tuesday underscored the importance of conservation by residents, as the escalating drought conditions, which, according to him was first realised in February, is seemingly threatening to get worse.

Williams told The Gleaner that the NWC is fully engaged in the trucking of water to schools, health facilities, police stations, and also to its residential customers to ensure that the commodity is available to those users, despite the challenges.

“St Mary, like all other parishes, is now experiencing drought at some of our facilities, especially on the eastern side. So at Iterboreale (near Annotto Bay), where we normally have a dual feed from a spring and well, the spring is dry so we are only using the well,” said Williams.

“We have to implement regulation schedule for the eastern part of the parish to include Windsor Castle and Hart Hill in Portland and Dover, Epsom, and Enfield in St Mary. A couple of other facilities, to include Rock Spring and Martha Hall, are under 50 per cent now. So we have also implemented a trucking schedule. We have implemented the regulations and the trucking schedule to cover the areas that are currently experiencing the drought conditions.

“Our priority, in this order, is that we focus on health, the police, the schools, and then we go to the other customers. So those facilities are given priority. We normally fill schools on a Monday and our schedule allow us to truck water to schools only on a Monday to ensure that they have water to function. The areas of focus are the Richmond and Zion Hill areas where the Rock Spring facility has gone down under 30 per cent in its operation,” Williams added.

According to Williams, it is a serious situation facing St Mary and its residents and that the NWC is seeking to ease the burdens on persons.

“Normally, some areas might get water every day, but with the low yield, [and] no water in the pipe, we have to be trucking based on the wide area. So now we have a schedule that might see some customers getting water every three weeks. So we encourage persons to have their storage, so that when the truck comes they can fill them up and conserve until we get back around.

“The parish is extremely wide and we have to ensure that everyone benefits, even though the conditions have not improved," Williams concluded. 

- Gareth Davis Snr

Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.