OLD National Water Commission (NWC) pipelines along the Rio Cobre in the Bog Walk Gorge are to be replaced as part of the US$195-million (J$17-billion) Jamaica Water Supply Improvement Project (Jamaica SIP), which is expected to be rolled out soon.

President of the National Water Commission E G Hunter said, however, that motorists will suffer some discomfort because of the digging of the road to lay the new pipes.

“We’ll have to dig up the gorge, but we are going to put in iron pipes so that it will last 100 years and won’t break because right now breaks are often. What that will give us immediately is an additional two million gallons of water which is now being lost.

“We see it as making a significant investment in water supply infrastructure,” Hunter told Observer reporters and editors at their weekly Monday Exchange meeting at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue in Kingston yesterday.

“We acknowledge that in the implementation of these works there will be some inconvenience to the travelling public but we guarantee that it will be restored in a manner superior to what exists,” Hunter said, noting that the work will be done by contractors Vinci, which is of French origin like Bouygues – the company that had repaired the gorge free of cost after a battering from Tropical Storm Gustav last year. Vinci, he said, also has an “excellent track record”.

The NWC president said some 80 per cent of the Rio Cobre pipeline – which runs from Bog Walk into Ferry and Portmore, St Catherine – is asbestos cement, which is highly susceptible to earth movement, and is also feared as posing health risks. The 35-year-old pipeline, he added, also suffers from leaks.

According to the NWC president, digging up the gorge after it was fixed by Bouygues was not an act of stupidity on its part, but sheer resource constraints.

“It’s not because we are stupid, it’s not because we didn’t go to school. It’s called coincidence of financing. Everyone is fighting for finances so it’s not like you are sitting on the funds to be able to co-ordinate with the work of other agencies,” Hunter said.

In the meantime, the NWC boss said the Jamaica SIP mega water supply project would be the first major scheme to benefit Kingston and St Andrew since the construction of the Yallahs pipeline in 1986.

Under Jamaica SIP, said Hunter, some 70,000 customer meters will be installed in Ocho Rios and Kingston and St Andrew. In addition, several rural areas will also to benefit from the project. They are Kitson Town in St Catherine; Albert Town, Trelawny; Higgin Town, St Ann; Agualta Vale, St Mary and Mason Hall in St Mary.

Hunter said the intention is to begin the physical work on the project the first week of October this year, adding that work would last two years with one year for maintenance.

Partners in this project are the Bank of Nova Scotia, contractor Vinci and French Construction Company

BNP Paribas.

The flood-prone gorge has been closed several times over the years. More recently it was closed in September of 2008, October of 2007 and January 2006 because of flood damage.

The first road through the gorge is said to have been cut in 1770. The first bridge, connecting both sides of the gorge, was made of wood but was replaced by the Flat Bridge, which is made from cut stone and mortar.

A marker there shows where the water rose to 25 feet above the bridge in 1933.