Concerns have again been raised about the lack of piped water in sections of the resort town of Negril. During a stormy meeting of the Negril Resort Board in the town last week, it was revealed that Negril may be on the verge of another water crisis if the existing situation is not properly managed.

“Ten days I haven’t got one teaspoon of water and I am still running on a tank… we are totally out of water at the West End,” Dalton Hill, operator of the Lighthouse Inn located on the West End Road, told the meeting.

The gravity of the issue became more apparent when the regional water supply and distribution manager for the National Water Commission’s (NWC) western region, Richard Meggo, disclosed at the meeting that the Logwood plant, which is supplied by two water sources, is currently being fed by only one.

He pointed out that one of the sources has dried up as a result of drought conditions. This, he said, has reduced the NWC’s production by 30 per cent.

“As it is now, the Fish River Blue Hole is completely dried up, so we have a 30 per cent reduction in the amount of water that we can abstract,” Meggo disclosed.

He said among the measures being implemented by the commission is to cease the pumping of water during the nights to allow the remaining source to be replenished, as well as the scheduling of water lock- offs for different areas at different times.

Between 2013 and 2015, the NWC embarked on a US$12.6-million expansion programme in western Jamaica which involved the laying of pipelines to transport water from the Great River Treatment Plant on the St James/ Hanover border to the town of Lucea.

The aim was to take Lucea and other areas off the Logwood treatment plant located in Hanover, thus allowing the NWC to divert most of the water supplied by the Logwood plant to the resort town of Negril. This move, however, appears to have limited success, as in recent weeks some hotel operators and residents in Negril have been complaining of being without water for over a week.