MARTHA BRAE, Trelawny – North Trelawny Member of Parliament Dr Patrick Harris is confident that the completion of the US$40 million (J$24.8 b) Martha Brae Water Supply Expansion and Rehabilitation project will see his constituency becoming the first to have 100 per cent access to potable water by 2010.

The North Trelawny MP said that upon completion, the improved water system should significantly boost supply to more domestic consumers in communities which have been having severe water shortages.

“. The new pipeline not only will improve the water supply that runs on the corridor – Falmouth, Coopers Pen, Duncans, and Spring Hill into Duncans, but it will leave more water in the rural communities of Clarks Town, Spicy Hill, Refuge and Samuel Prospect, that now have a serious problem because they don’t have adequate water,” Harris said.

Improved water supply, the MP said, would play a key role in major developments slated for the parish.

Dr Fenton Ferguson, the state minister with direct responsibility for water ministry, agreed.

“The Martha Brae to Braco project is the flagship project in the National Water Commission presently. It is a project that will have significant impact on the north western parishes in relation to the number of persons who will benefit,” Ferguson said.

“This tour is really a sensitisation to see what is happening with the Martha Brae treatment plant and special projects that is of interest not only to us but to the rest of Jamaica. It will drive the developmental imperatives of the corridor on the north coast,” added the MP.

Former prime minister P J Patterson a year ago broke ground for the Martha Brae Water Supply Expansion and Rehabilitation project, a vital plank for a number of large projects planned for northern Jamaica.

Upgrading work, which commenced on the Martha Brae treatment plant a week ago, forms a part of the North Western Parishes Water Supply Service Improvement Project and is scheduled for completion by July 15. The overhaul of the treatment plant being undertaken by French contractors, Sogea Satom, will push its capacity to six million gallons of water per day. This is a 100 per cent increase over the plant’s current output.

During the two-month period, the NWC will rely on a flexible operating capability which will see sections of both parishes normally served by the Martha Brae plant receiving water from the Great River plant in St James.

Other components of the North Western Parishes Water Supply Service Improvement project include:

. the construction of new transmission pipelines from Martha Brae to Duncans and Braco which is 80 per cent complete;

. construction of two million-gallon storage reservoirs at Harmony Hall and Spring Garden in Duncans; which is also partially completed; and

. the technical audit of water supply systems in Trelawny, St James Hanover and Westmoreland.

– hinesh@jamaicaobserver.com