NWC completes 25 water and sewerage projects
KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – During the last fiscal year (2014/15), the National Water Commission (NWC) completed 25 water and sewerage projects.
“Billions were expended by the agency on the continued implementation of water supply improvement projects islandwide,” Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change Robert Pickersgill, said as he made his contribution to the 2015/16 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives, on Wednesday.
Some of the big projects completed during the past financial year included: the replacement of Segment 2 of the Rio Cobre pipeline between Content District and Ferry in St. Catherine, at a cost of $3 billion, to benefit the majority of constituencies in the Kingston Metropolitan Area, and many constituencies in St Catherine.
Also, the Bogue Water Treatment Plant in St Ann was refurbished at a cost of $465 million, to benefit residents in North East St. Ann, Western and Central St. Mary.
Other projects included the refurbishing of the Great River Water Supply Treatment Plant for Hanover and St. James, and the Martha Brae Water Treatment Plant in Trelawny, at a cost of $320 million, to benefit coastal constituencies along the north western coast from North West St. Ann to Western Westmoreland.
Pickersgill also informed that the NWC has a number of ongoing projects, including the rehabilitation of 26 water supply facilities, which is now nearing completion in the Kingston Metropolitan Area, at a cost of $1.7 billion and with approximately 750,000 intended beneficiaries.
He also noted that phase one of the Port Antonio Water, Sewerage and Drainage project is substantially completed and is being undertaken at a cost of $1.9 billion, with 75,000 persons to benefit.
In addition, the Artificial Aquifer Recharge Project, which is aimed at securing the sustainable abstraction of water from the South St. Catherine Limestone Aquifer, is being done at a cost of $1 billion.
“This is a pioneering project, as it has never before been carried out in Jamaica or the Caribbean. This project will safeguard against over-abstraction from the aquifer,” Pickersgill said.
