KINGSTON, Jamaica — As the terrible drought continues across Jamaica and National Water Commission (NWC) restrictions are imposed, the viability of maintaining a car wash business has come to the fore.

In the Corporate Area, where many of the businesses flourish, they have been hard hit by the NWC restriction and threat of fines for the use of piped water to wash vehicles.

Some however have found an alternative water supply and are soldiering on despite the drought and dwindling customers.

“A tank me run offa enuh,” Omar Brown, a supervisor at Star Team Car Wash told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Brown, whose car wash is located off Camp Road, said that instead of getting water from the NWC pipes they now buy from a water truck.

He said nonetheless that the drought is having an overall negative effect on car washes adding that his customers “drop right down.”

Pauline Codling, a supervisor at Total Auto Car Wash, says she did not expect the drought to affect businesses the way that it has.

“The drought affecting us badly,” she said. “It affects us because we have to cut staff; we have to cut the days. I start cutting staff from last week.”

“Before the drought we would get about 20 cars. Now that the drought is here I sleep almost all of the day, now is just two cars a day,” said Codling.

In ‘N’ Out Car Wash is another Corporate Area business suffering from a drought in customers.

“Well to be honest it is affecting us real bad. Business is very slow and we have to be buying water so there is little or no profit to be made right now,” an employee said.

“We would get about eight to ten cars a day, yesterday we only got three,” he continued.

Two weeks ago, the government announced that wasting water was illegal. There has been a prohibition notice on activities like filling up swimming pools and watering lawns. Water wasters can be fined or even serve a 30-day jail sentence.