Port Royal currently has no sewerage plant, but that’s about to change soon.

The residents are to start benefiting from better water supply and a sewerage treatment plant because of the cruise pier development that is being undertaken by the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), in partnership with the Urban Development Corporation (UDC).

Just under $600 million is to be spent on the water distribution network, and another $500 million on the sewerage system.

“We are very mindful of what is to come even after the pier is developed. It is most appropriate and more of a long-term vision for Port Royal rather than a system that serves just the port,” Barnett told to the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee in parliament yesterday.

He said the decision has been taken to locate the treatment plant outside of the confines of the port itself. “The system is being developed in a modular way to take the immediate needs, but we recognise, based on the nature of the work that will be done, that there will be some forward installation that would be required,” he said.

Barnett said funding is to be set aside in the upcoming budget for the 2020/21 fiscal period, when the works are slated to start.