RESIDENTS of some Portmore communities who have for years been offended by the foul odour emanating from sewage treatment plants in their areas have another two years or so before they can breathe easier, based on National Water Commission (NWC) estimates.

The commission’s vice-president of wastewater operations Mark Barnett told the Jamaica Observer at last week’s Second Global Conference on Land-Ocean Connections (GLOC-2) in Montego Bay that Cabinet and the National Contracts Commission have already rubber-stamped a project to retire five pumping stations in the municipality and re-route the sewage to the Soapberry Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Soapberry, which was commissioned into service in 2008 with a total capacity of 18 million gallons, is now at about 60 per cent.

The plants to be retired are those at Bridgeport, Independence City (located near the entrance to Waterford), Hamilton Gardens, Caymanas Gardens and Portmore Villas. Together, they have a capacity of five million gallons, but Barnett explained that they are old, inefficient, and are not meeting the required tertiary standards.

“We will spend $2 billion to correct (this) and divert the sewage to Soapberry,” he said.

“And rather than have the facilities there consuming energy, and you know that we purchase energy at a very high rate, we are going to be converting them into pumping stations and gravity lines,” he added.

A contract should be inked this month, with the design of the new systems expected to be complete in three months and construction lasting 18 months after that.

NWC President Albert Gordon said the phasing out of small treatment facilities in favour of central systems is something the commission would like to replicate across the island in order to make the treatment process more time- and cost-efficient. A major consideration too, is meeting standards for wastewater and sludge, for which local regulations were gazetted only this year.

But the undertaking will take significant investment, Gordon said, explaining that the commission is hobbled, since it is not allowed to earn money. It has, however, been benefiting from financial and technical assistance from the Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management, which is being financed by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Its situation is also expected to be bolstered by an increase in utility rates which the Office of Utilities Regulation has approved and announced this week.

There are 67 sewage treatment plants in 20 towns across the island, with the four major ones serving Kingston, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, and Negril.

“It will cost us US$1 billion to do the entire 20 towns to fix the existing problems and put in central systems,” Gordon said.

In tandem with the re-routing, the NWC head said the commission is on a mission to rehabilitate existing plants to meet tertiary standards.

“We are now looking to do Port Antonio and Sav because these are particularly sensitive areas. In another few years we expect all of our facilities to meet the tertiary standards,” said Gordon.