Amid the pride of being acknowledged as the only pre-colonial teacher training institution surviving into the 21st century and one of the oldest in the entire hemisphere, the 187-year-old The Mico University College continues to flex its muscles to survive in spite of increasingly difficult challenges.

The threat this time was a $36 million-a-year water bill, which had been its most significant vulnerability since its inception as dry months and waterless pipes continued to drain its sports fields and domestic water containers, creating dust bowls and an awful learning atmosphere for thirsty students and impatient teachers.

However, those days are almost gone as, instead of parents having major concerns about how their children can continue to breathe under a sheet of deteriorating respiratory problems fed by the unavailability of water from the well on the prroperty, they can now feel relieved to focus on its maintenance.

So much water is now available to Mico that Member of Parliament for the area, Julian Robinson, in congratulating the school for finding its own water source and cutting down on excessive National Water Commission (NWC) bills, noted that the university can now reach out to neighbouring high schools — Wolmer’s Boys’ and Girls’ — to reduce the weight of maintenance bills.

Robinson suggested that the university heads meet with the two adjoining high schools, which are just metres away from National Heroes Park, and have discussions with the NWC on assisting them to join the line.

“You need to help, and you will also need help yourselves, so try and work with the Wolmer’s schools, and I am commending the leadership of Mico (for this achievement),” Robinson said.

Welcoming the crowd of graduates, students, teachers, and well-wishers who attended the event marking the turning off of the NWC main, and the commissioning of the new main last Thursday at Mico’s Marescaux Road location in St Andrew, Dr Sylvester Tulloch, chairman of the Mico Foundation, admitted that the project has been “long in the making”.

He said that the idea was developed in 2016 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the diminishing of the school’s financial resources. He explained that The Mico University President Dr Ashbourne Pinnock raised the issue at one of the school’s regular meetings as a proposal to the board for the development of an independent water supply system for the institution which would reduce or remove the need to pay fees for the liquid.

“He posited that with the college paying out over $1.5 million per month, it would have been very cost-effective if the foundation could explore the idea of sinking a well that would supply both potable water and water for irrigation purposes,” Dr Tulloch explained.

He said that the foundation accepted that proposal and mobilised funding through National Commercial Bank (NCB) to start the project. In 2017, the wells were commissioned and the recruited personnel mobilised to start the sinking of the new well, a task which was completed in 2018.

Following this development, aquatic solutions and innovations were engaged to install a submersible pump, which is sometimes called a bell pump and is fully immersed in water to be extracted and used in flooding such as rising groundwater in cellars or basements, flooded boats, or flooded areas.

“We faced a number of financial and technical challenges along the way, but we were resilient in our efforts. We were determined to have the project completed,” Tulloch noted.

He recalled that the newly installed system has the capacity to produce over 100,000 gallons of water per day.

“Today we can boast in the fact that we now have our own water system to supply both potable and irrigation water. Before this, some of the areas of the campus were parched and looked like a dust bowl and all together the city has been experiencing long periods of drought. But, today, as we look at the greenery around we can boast of the fact that we now have our own water system to supply our needs,” he added.

He singled out Dr Arthur Geddes, project chairman in 2018 to 2021, for performing “yeoman services”, until he got support from director Hugh Morris to see the projection to completion.

Dr R Karl James, Lady Mico Trust trustee, noted that the licence that was granted to the college is to extract 381 cubic metres of water from the well per day as of October 2018.

“We are looking forward to the roll-out of the much-anticipated entrepreneurship and enterprise aspects of this project, and we know that many Jamaicans will benefit from the water provided for domestic use as well as bottled water for consumption. The commitment is to provide these products at a lower cost to users who are part of The Mico family as well as the general public,” Dr James said.

He said that Mico is a safe investment. Of the hundreds of academic institutions started by the Lady Mico Trust after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade the Mico University College is the only one which still remains.

The trust is, therefore, happy that we responded in such a tangible way to this urgent requirement and hope to continue our support of the institution. The well is, to use a cliché, the gift which keeps on giving, and for generations to come the Mico community and the public will be realising benefits from this project.

Secretary manager of the Mico Foundation Burchell Duhaney noted that with the new irrigation system the sports fields will be protected from floods, and a system developed to water the sports fields, thereby making them more marketable to attract investments in the Corporate Area.

“It took significant time and expense to bring the sporting field to this current state. The onset of the pandemic delayed the process,” he noted, pointing out that some $80 million were spent on developing the football and cricket fields as well as implementing the irrigation network system, costing over $80 million.

“We ran out of money, and we need some more money to do the rest of what we have to do,” he admitted.

He noted that they have been receiving some donations to carry on the work, which is now in the final stages of the project, and which had to be rescoped to ensure that the validity of the technical aspects, to produce consistent and reliable water, are in place.

A 65,000-gallon steel tank has also been put in place to store water and a building is being constructed to accommodate the pump and delivery systems. However, he said that some challenges still remain, including setting up a proper procurement and delivery system and to meet other challenges.

Responding on behalf of the NWC, Delano Williams, acting corporate public relations manager, said that it was not “a sad story” for the NWC that Mico was moving on as “it [water] is a service commodity, and when we recognise the value of partnerships and timing, I don’t think you could ever wish for a better time to have your own water source than right now,” he suggested.

He said that with the drought and other water crisis, the commission recognised that it is “all hands on deck as we try to identify additional sources of water to serve the city in a reliable and regular way”.

“The truth is that it really is not always possible. We in Kingston have the largest population and perhaps the least amount of supply. The reverse applies to the north coast where you have smaller populations but a greater supply of water. So it is continuously our thrust that, as a company, we find ways of bringing water into the city,” he said.