THE National Water Commission (NWC) yesterday began an assessment of its systems to determine the nature and level of the damage caused by Hurricane Dean.

“Virtually all of the NWC’s 460 water supply systems and 68 wastewater systems across the island were affected in one way or another by the passage of Hurricane Dean, and about 80 per cent of them stopped operating during or immediately before the hurricane’s passage, while some customers continued to receive piped water throughout the passing hurricane,” corporate public relations manager Charles Buchanan said yesterday.

He said the NWC had already received reports of heavy siltation and high turbidity at some treatment plants and pumping stations, broken mains and dislocated pipelines, damage to intake structures and inaccessible roadways preventing access to their facilities.

But he said despite the challenges, “nearly all of the largest water supply systems are among the set now back in operation using available standby generators or by means of gravity flow distribution”.

“In addition, most of our wastewater facilities are also now back in operation,” Buchanan said yesterday.

According to Buchanan, the NWC’s first and highest priority is to bring back into operation the largest and most critical water supply facilities that serve large population centres and important public institutions (such as hospitals and the airports).

Yesterday, he said that among the major systems that operated throughout the passage of the hurricane and which were still operating were the Bogue Water Treatment Plant in St Ann that serves the Ocho Rios environs; Roaring River Water Treatment Plant in Westmoreland, which serves Savanna-la-Mar; and the Bluefields Water Supply system, that supplies Bluefields and Mt Edgecombe in Westmoreland.

Meanwhile, he said the water supply along the coastal areas from Ocho Rios through to Montego Bay were reactivated yesterday as well as Bullstrode in Westmoreland, the Constant Spring, Seaview and Mona Treatment Plants in Kingston. The coastal strip from Montego Bay to Lucea was expected to be restored last night.

“Based on the production facilities now in operation, even without public power supply, approximately 40 per cent of production capacity is now in operation,” Buchanan said while urging customers to continue to store water.