NWC urges customers to store water as Hurricane Elsa approaches
KINGSTON, Jamaica— The National Water Commission (NWC) is warning that its systems could become comprised depending on the impact of Hurricane Elsa.
The Meteorological Service of Jamaica today upgraded the hurricane watch for the country to a hurricane warning as Hurricane Elsa approaches the central Caribbean.
The NWC said it is now on high alert as the country gets ready to deal with the potential impact of the hurricane.
”A comprehensive Disaster Preparedness Manual has been activated and takes into consideration several disaster-related issues that are aimed at reducing the risk of damage to the Company’s systems and to enable the speediest and most effective return to normality if the systems are affected by the disaster,” the Commission said.
”Several steps were already taken to meet the prospective challenges of a natural disaster, including fine-tuning certain aspects of the Disaster Preparedness Manual. Despite this, no water system is “hurricane-proof”, and as such water supply and wastewater systems are extremely vulnerable to hurricanes and extreme weather events,” it added.
The NWC said, its systems currently remain fully operational, however, this could change.
It also urged customers to store water as there could be a lack of regular supply during the impact of the hurricane.
”Water should be stored for use during and after the event. It is important that persons store as much water as they can – more than a gallon per day and enough to last at least seven days. For people with tanks, it is important that they use this opportunity to ensure that their non-return valves are working and will not drain the water back into the network if piped supply is disrupted,” the NWC said.
”It should be stressed that full restoration of water systems could be impacted by several factors, including the availability of power for our pumping equipment. Most of the NWC systems are heavily dependent on the national power grid for operations and the availability of the supply could be dependent on this factor,” it added.
