Long-standing water woes at the University of The West Indies (UWI), Mona, in St Andrew are expected to ease considerably with the construction of an 800-foot well on the adjoining College Commons community.

The UWI partnered with American-owned North Star Development Jamaica Limited, which provided the services and products required to complete the project and funded its operations through debt financing from Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB). The well will serve over 30,000 people, inclusive of students and staff of the UWI, residents of College Commons 1 and 2 and the nearby University Hospital of the West Indies, staff and wardens.

Minister without portfolio with responsibility for water, works and housing, Horace Chang was on hand to officially commission the well last week, in the presence of the university’s administration and other stakeholders.

He used the opportunity to promote the idea of self-sufficiency and innovation and encouraged the university to train more engineers to qualify them to increase and maintain the development of the island’s infrastructure.

The well was UWI’s response after a flood of complaints over the years about water shortages linked to droughts that often resulted in classes being cancelled or student residents being sent home, said UWI Principal Archibald McDonald.

He said that for an institution with an increasing roll of over 18,000 students, self-sufficiency would be key to the university’s survival as a business, and he hailed the private-public partnership with North Star, saying the regional institution would benefit from it on a long-term basis.

Under the agreement, UWI will make payments to North Star based on the level of water consumption over the next 15 to 20 years, at the end of which all profits made from the well’s source would go directly to The UWI and its investors.

“Today the University has never been closer to the private sector,” McDonald added, pointing out that over the years, The UWI had similarly partnered with local, regional and international private investors. He noted that some aspects of The university would be better managed by private entities, thereby allowing The UWI administration to focus on its core functions of teaching and learning.

North Star’s president Mark Tippett expressed regret that the project had taken longer than expected, but suggested that it was an investment worth making.

McDonald also singled out the partnership with 138 Student Living, a private entity to reconstruct the traditional halls of residences and create new ones on the campus. Two halls of residences have already been constructed, housing thousands of students. The demolition of Irvine Hall, the first to be built on campus, has already begun and its reconstruction set to be completed and resume housing students in August next year.

Principal McDonald said the new facilities would attract more international students and make living on campus more comfortable for student residents. He bemoaned the fact that operation of the halls of residences over the years had not been profitable, but said the revenue-sharing agreement with 138 would prove to be more beneficial.