MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Member of Parliament for Manchester Central Rhoda Crawford said she is looking forward to lobbying for Mandeville to become a city following the completion of multi-billion-dollar projects.

Within the next two years, the long-awaited water supply for the south-central town is expected to be completed to add to the improvement of infrastructure and spur investments for Mandeville.

“This Greater Mandeville Water System fits into the Greater Mandeville Development Programme currently going on, is the Mandeville Traffic Management System and, of course ,the multimillion-dollar South Coast Highway, so when this is finished I am sure I will be going to Minister [Matthew] Samuda and the rest of the Government to look at making Mandeville into a city, because truly, the infrastructure, the investment is being made,” Crawford said last Thursday while on a tour of the water system project.

Work on the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 is advancing uphill towards Mandeville. The project — which will reduce travel time between Kingston, Mandeville and other points west — is scheduled for completion in August.

The Greater Mandeville Traffic Improvement System, which incorporates roads and intersections being widened and signalised, began last month. Among the roads and intersections to be signalised under the $80-million project are North Race Course Road to Main Street, North Race Course Road to Caledonia Road, Villa Road to Main Street, South Race Course Road, Caledonia Road, Park Crescent, Manchester Road, Perth Road, and Greenvale Road.

Phase one of the project will include the conversion of a section of Caledonia Road into a one-way system.

In recent years, leaders in Mandeville have been advocating for the south-central town to be considered as Jamaica’s third city.

The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) began pre-assessment studies in 2017 to identify a site to establish Jamaica’s third city — after Kingston and Montego Bay.

Mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell told the Sunday Observer a year ago that in the event of natural disasters affecting low-lying areas, Mandeville would be ideal as a city or operational centre because of its high altitude, more than 2,000 feet above sea level.

“You would need an area where, if something is to happen and you have all that sort of flooding, the centre of things is somewhere up on a hilltop that can manage and operate,” he had said.

Former president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Garfield Green, now custos of Manchester, in 2018 said he wanted Mandeville to be “the commercial hub for central Jamaica and for it to be established [as] the central city of Jamaica”.

On the downside, the greater Mandeville area has huge water problems. There is a shortfall to the tune of millions of gallons annually, with most of the life-giving liquid being expensively pumped from wells on the plains of neighbouring St Elizabeth.

Crawford said the water supply improvement project for Mandeville is being fast-tracked by the National Water Commission (NWC).

“I am pleased with the progress of the work. I know that when this project is completed thousands of constituents will benefit from major upgrades and even while the project enters into the different phases, constituents from some communities are already benefiting from the upgrading of the system,” she said last Thursday.

She said pipelines have also been replaced in Wilbin (near Royal Flat) and Church Street.

“New pipelines have been laid and for the first time in history, constituents now have running water,” said Crawford.

The $84-million phase of the Greater Mandeville Water Supply Improvement project underway encompasses the installation of 2.5 kilometres of ductile iron pipeline on Hopeton Road in Mandeville and is expected to be completed within six months.

“This is a major investment; it is also providing employment opportunities for the constituents in Manchester Central and outside of these major projects, because we know that these are long term investments and long term programmes,” said Crawford.

Government Minister Matthew Samuda said the overall water supply project is to be completed by 2025.

“The reality is it is a large scale project, it forms a part of the Greater Mandeville Water System investment, which will no doubt surpass $4 billion, we are $670 million in. We have a lot of work to do throughout the course of this year,” he said while touring the Gutters Pumping Station and storage facility at the Manchester/St Elizabeth border last Thursday.

“Over the next 12 to 24 months, residents at each node will start to see the improvement in the regularity, reliability of their water supply. This is a major capital investment to benefit the communities of Pepper, Gutters, Font Hill and Goshen heading all the way to the people of Mandeville,” said Samuda.

“The hundreds of thousands of people along this corridor can look forward to significant improvement in their water supply on the back of the investment being made by the NWC,” he added.

He said two new pumps were installed and are running at improved efficiency at Gutters.

“This is one of our most expensive pumping stations, nationally, because of energy use… The upgrade is not just for reliability and the increased water capacity, it is also to ensure that we start the process of bringing down our energy consumption,” he said.

“There are two new pumps that are in storage to go into the building [Gutters Pumping Station[] throughout the course of this year that will further build our resilience as we will have additional capacity to ensure that when pumps go down you have other pumps that can run,” he added.

Minister Samuda reiterated that the Government is planning to utilise solar energy to reduce the high cost of pumping water uphill to Mandeville.

He said the energy bill at the pumping station is regularly in excess of $30 million.

“We are looking actively at lands close by to ensure that we are able to invest in additional energy capacity by way of renewable energy, specifically solar to start to offset some of the higher costs that we face, especially during peak periods,” he said.

He said the water supply project will reduce non-revenue water.

“Every six months, residents, as we get closer to Mandeville, will see improvement in regularity, reliability [and] the pressure of their water supply. That $4 billion will include significant line replacement in and around Mandeville along with storage tanks at elevated positions which is also a critical part, not just of additional secondary storage, but it also helps us to reduce energy as we are able to gravity feed from those pumps down to communities,” said Samuda.

The Pepper Well Field, downslope at low altitude in St Elizabeth, is the main source of water for Mandeville, which is more than 2,000 feet above sea level, atop the Manchester Plateau.

He said the Pepper Well Field is being upgraded.

“We have already spent some $200 million at that facility and we are seeing the progress of that work. We would have already completed the installation of a 200,000-gallon upgraded tank. The drilling for our new well, which will surpass 500 feet, is well underway. Several other elements are coming together to ensure that we do meet our projected completion timeline of the end of this year for that system,” he said.