KELLITS, Clarendon (JIS) – A $10 million project to upgrade the water supply system in Kellits is a month to completion.

The system will also feed Crofts Hill, Pate, Shooter, Rhoden Hall, Corner and Croft Gate.

“We are now taking water from the Pindar’s River, a tributary of the Rio Minho River,” said Charles Buchanan, Corporate Public Relations Manager at the National Water Commission (NWC).

“Whenever it rains the water is filled with debris and other things, so primarily what we are doing is installing a treatment facility, which will ensure improved water quality.”

The main works under the project include the construction of a base and installation of filter plants, construction of a building to house the plant, and the rehabilitation of a steel tank in the Shooter community.

The works began October 2004 and are to be completed by mid-June.

Buchanan said the Kellits system is part of a wider programme to improve community water systems islandwide, funded $100 million by the Diageo Foundation, Diageo is the parent company for Red Stripe.

The programme targets the systems that were damaged by Hurricane Ivan, which hit last September.

“Without Red Stripe’s contribution, the National Water Commission would not have been able to undertake these projects at this time,” said Buchanan.

Other schemes on which work have begun are located at Venture River and Brighton in Westmoreland; Lacovia to Slipe in St Elizabeth; Sherwood in Trelawny; Dumphries Crescent, Spring Piece, Grosette, Unity Hall, Curtis Bottom to Land Top, Spring Garden/Heritage, Beehive Lane, Charles Scheme and Golden Grove (Barracks) in St Thomas; and the Woodlands/Blackgate area in Hanover.

All projects are scheduled for completion by September.