Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda says the National Water Commission (NWC) is reaping success in its efforts to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) in the Corporate Area and Portmore in St Catherine.

“We are seeing where this is bringing about significant benefits in Portmore. In installing these new pipes and measuring our pressure properly, we have saved 30-odd per cent of our energy usage thus far in Portmore,” the Minister said.

Non-revenue water refers to water that is lost from theft or broken pipes for which the NWC cannot receive income.

Samuda highlighted that in the Kingston Metropolitan Area, the project has already cut NRW from some 71 per cent to under 38 per cent. He added that a rollout of the full NRW programme is expected this year.

A large part of this NRW project will be the mobilization of laying of pipes and pressure monitors, ensuring that we are not either under pumping or over pumping,” he stated.

The minister, who was speaking Thursday at the commissioning of the 50,000-gallon Storage Tank Replacement Project in York Town Clarendon, pointed to the need for the NWC to build infrastructure that will fundamentally change its capacity to store, process and deliver water.

Energy consumption, he said, is a large part of that thrust and pointed out that over 30 per cent of funds collected by the NWC go into paying the Jamaica Public Service.

He added that projects which reduce the need for pumping hours as well as gravity-fed systems and tackle leaks are critical, as the NWC is actively looking at all opportunities to utilise renewable energy and to manage its consumption.

He pointed to the importance of reporting water theft, noting that it was essential to the stability of all systems being rolled out by the NWC across Jamaica, and urged citizens to work with the NWC.