PONDSIDE, Hanover — Residents of Pondside and surrounding communities are breathing a sigh of relief following the commissioning of the Cascade Phase Two potable water supply system.

The $150-million project forms part of a wider $600-million development started in 2013. Supply from the Great River Water Treatment Plant in Hanover is pumped up to a reservoir in Claremont, gravity-fed to another reservoir in Cascade and then gravity-fed to surrounding areas.

Among the communities that have already benefitted, or are slated to do so, are Cascade, Jericho, Mount Peace, Patty Hill, Shortfield, Hanna Town, Bula Town, Retrieve, Claremont, and Pondside.

Dean of discipline for Merlene Ottey High School, Dian Foster-Wright, told the
Jamaica Observer of the joy felt after seeing potable water at the school’s gate for the first time in more than 34 years.

Foster-Wright said she was doing her patrol on the school’s compound when she saw two men from the National Water Commission (NWC) who said they were doing final work to get supply to the school.

“And then, the gentleman turned a knob at the pipe there and we heard sush shum…and the force of the water…We said, ‘Yes!’ And the students and the principal came out and we had a jolly water party up here with the water,” said Foster-Wright.

According to a joyful Member of Parliament for Hanover Eastern Dave Brown (Jamaica Labour Party), the project had ended without the high school and the nearby Pondside Primary School being factored in to be connected to the newly established main which ended in the Pondside Square.

“So, we had to go back to the drawing board and do some serious work and I am so happy that water eventually got to this community,” stated Brown.

He noted that it takes a lot to lobby for projects in his constituency to the point where, “sometimes I even give up, take a break from it and come again.”

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with responsibility for water, environment, climate change and the blue and green economics, Matthew Samuda, was on hand for the commissioning. He told the gathering of teachers, students and other residents who were on hand for the ceremony held at the Merlene Ottey High School on Wednesday that Prime Minister Andrew Holness, upon hearing that the school had initially not been included, insisted that the issue be addressed.

“I want to thank the prime minister for signing off on the funds that were needed to invest into this community and I want to thank you all, not for your patience, but for holding us all [accountable] to ensure that the work is done because we are in a race against time,” stated the minister, who pointed out that the Government is in a race to achieve the 2030 vision.

Samuda said the system brings to an end years of drought in the community. He also noted that the Government will continue to invest at an unprecedented rate and ensure that the NWC, which last earned a profit for the first time in its history, is run well.

Acting president of the NWC, Kevin Kerr called on students to be agents of the entity by reminding their parents to pay their bills which in turn will assist the company to make investments in projects such as the one commissioned on Wednesday.

Kerr later told the
Observer that the school will first have to undertake internal plumbing to be connected to the NWC network. He said the NWC will be assisting as part of its customer service outreach.

The NWC is also in the process of accepting applications from residents who wish to be connected to the new network.

Potable commodity from the first phase of the project was turned on by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in August 2020, a month shy of the September 2020 General Election.

Contract signing for the project took place at the then Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change in 2013 and was expected to provide 350,000 gallons of potable water per day to approximately 10,000 residents.