The National Water Commission (NWC) has stopped just short of announcing widespread water lock-offs, instead urging consumers to conserve, as hot, dry conditions persist, with little or no rainfall in many areas of the island.

Almost 15 per cent of the utility company’s 460 water supply systems across Jamaica have been hit by drought conditions, the NWC said in a release.

The hardest hit areas include the breadbasket parish of St Elizabeth where virtually all of the NWC’s 14 systems have been affected; rural St Andrew with 22 systems affected; Clarendon with nine systems affected; St Thomas with seven systems affected and east Portland with five systems affected.

“The impact of the drought is most pronounced on small, discrete water supply systems, mainly in rural areas that are supplied from rivers or springs,” the Commission said. “The Hermitage/Constant Spring Water Supply System is the major exception to this as it is a very large system that needs to produce approximately 15 million gallons of water per day to adequately meet the needs of those customers in a large section of the Corporate Area served by it.”

NWC said customers in affected areas would experience either periods of low water pressure or periods of no water and it urged consumers to conserve on their use of water.

“As a response to the drought conditions, the National Water Commission has already initiated a range of water management measures tailored to meet the specific needs of each area/system in the best way possible,” the release said.

The measures include: trucking of water using the services of NWC, privately owned and Rapid Response trucks and trailers; value regulation and scheduled rationing of water; extracting the maximum possible yields from all available sources; reducing over-use, wastage and leakage and encouragement of conservation through public education activities.

“The National Water Commission notes that the extended period of very limited rainfall affecting sections of the island has increased the demand for its services at the same time that the volumes of water available, especially from some of its smaller, surface-water-fed systems, is declining,” it said.