GOVERNMENT is committed to boosting freshwater supplies in Jamaican cities, as elsewhere in the island, thus helping to improve people’s quality of life while enhancing the economy.

This is according to Water and Housing Minister Dr Horace Chang in his message delivered on World Water Day, celebrated this year under the theme ‘Water for cities: Responding to the urban challenge’.

“A ready supply of fresh, clean water and adequate sanitation can spell the difference between clean, attractive cities ripe with the potential for further economic growth, or a filthy economically stagnant area,” Chang said at a press conference held at the Girls’ Guide Headquarters in Kingston last Tuesday.

He added that given the projected 60 per cent increase in urban dwellers by 2030, ensuring improved access to freshwater and adequate sanitation for cities was especially critical.

In a bid to see that happened, Chang said Government was pumping US$85 million into the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) Water Supply Project “to improve the reliability and quality of water supply to the Corporate Area, Greater Spanish Town and South East St Catherine”. In addition, he said they were continuing with the Kingston and St Andrew (KSA) Water Sanitation Project, which will “rehabilitate the potable water supply facilities, sewerage and sewage treatment for the KSA”, as well as the Jamaica Water Supply Improvement Project (JWSIP).

“Of this lot, the flagship project is undoubtedly the JWSIP, which is the most ambitious water supply project undertaken to date,” the minister noted.

On completion, the US$210-million project is expected to add 20 million gallons per day of potable water to the targeted areas.

“It will also reduce system losses and improve the operating efficiencies of the island’s major water provider, the National Water Commission,” said Chang, noting that JWSIP also incorporates a number of water supply projects in several other parishes.

“We are currently at one of the most crucial stages of the JWSIP, which is the replacement of the old Rio Cobre asbestos cement pipeline, which brings water from Bog Walk along the gorge to KMA. Although it may create some inconvenience for motorists and residents in the area, this upgrade is necessary as it will ultimately reduce leaks and improve the reliability of supply to the KMA,” he noted.

“As these projects demonstrate, the ministry, its agencies and partners are responding to the urban challenge,” Chang added.

At the same time, the minister urged Jamaicans to recognise the need to conserve the vital resource, even as Government moved to improve their access to it over the long term.

“The extent of our ability to deliver potable water to you is dependent in large measure on your ability to keep our freshwater sources as pollution-free as possible,” Chang said. “As we observe World Water Day, the words of hydrologists Frank and Francis Chapelle come to mind… ‘the Romans realised, as have every civilised people since, that living in cities is impossible if the water supply is not reliably clean and fresh’.”

“Let us all work together in responding to the urban challenge so that our cities will be thriving meccas of social and economic growth and opportunity,” he said further.

— Ainsworth Morris