KINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Water Commission (NWC) is advising customers that with the continued low inflows to a number of water supply plants in St Mary and Portland, the company has been having significant challenges to supply water to the customers served by these plants.

The company said that over the past two to three months it has been forced to employ increased trucking arrangements to alleviate the water supply shortage faced by many customers.

Presently, the company said it delivers a daily average of 45,000 gallons of water to areas across St Mary and Portland.

In addition, it said its teams are working daily to harness the significantly reduced inflows in order to distribute it to the areas that can benefit from the commodity.

The Meteorological Service, Jamaica’s September report highlighted that on average the island received 54mm less rainfall than the previous year (2017) and additionally that the current volume of rainfall was 16 per cent less than the average rainfall for the past 30 years.

This on-going trend of drier conditions is manifesting itself in St Mary and Portland water systems that are operating way below the normal levels applicable for this time of year, the NWC said.

In Portland, the Turtle Crawle and Norwich Systems continue to operate well below 20 per cent while the Hunt’s Town, Derry Hazard, Wood Park and Sandhills systems in St Mary have been experiencing disruptions in operations since July 2018.

As a result, several communities served by the facility will experience disruptions in their regular water supply.

Areas include:

Portland —

Snow Hill, Passley Gardens, Gully Road, Coco Piece Road, Lime Tree Lane, Williamsfield, Drapers, Prospect, San San, parts of Fairy Hill, Boston, Castle, Fair Prospect, Fair Prospect H/S, Parts of Long Bay, Black Rock

St Mary —

Hunt’s Town, Derry Hazard, Russell Hall, Wood Park, Bailey’s vale, Oxford, Free Hill, Sandside, Cambridge and Rangolan Scheme.

The NWC said it has commenced discussions with the Water Resources Authority in order to fully assess the changes in water flows to existing sources. The studies will also include alternative approaches to water supply distribution and where the necessary the identification of new sources for water extraction.