THE state-run National Water Commission (NWC) is to embark on a five-year $100-billion expansion project that will extend its potable water reach to 85 per cent of the island.

The NWC’s coverage extends to 73 per cent of the island at present.

NWC President Albert Gordon spoke about the project Wednesday night during a public meeting at the Mona Heights Community Centre to update residents on the water and sewage expansion works in their area.

The project will see the rehabilitation, expansion and construction of water treatment facilities across the island, which among other things, will see the piping of water from the northern coast of the island, where the majority of the country’s fresh water lies, to the south coast.

The NWC’s “strategic water plan” as Gordon calls it, will improve water service to consumers and make water shortage, especially during the dry season, a thing of the past.

Currently being finalised is the phase to establish the works to be done and identify funding, NWC’s communication director Charles Buchanan told the Observer.

The project, which could get underway between this December and January of next year, is expected to help the NWC realise its vision of becoming the number one water service utility company in the Caribbean and Latin America by 2015, according to company officials.

Water and Housing Minister Horace Chang, who also spoke at the meeting, said that a US$17.5-million project to improve potable water supply to Kingston and urban areas of St Andrew by rehabilitating the ageing Mona Water Treatment Plant should start this month. The work is to be undertaken by VINCI Construction Grand Project and will be partly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Chang also spoke about the completion of current water and sewer treatment projects that will benefit Mona residents. “By next year you won’t have the water lock-off you usually have,” Chang told the residents.