KEW, Hanover — Acting president of the National Water Commission (NWC) Kevin Kerr said work, valued at $700 million, is expected to start in the upcoming financial year to upgrade a section of the entity’s network to better serve Kingsvale and other communities in Hanover that have been receiving little or no potable water in their pipes.

“Earlier, while we were at the Pell River, I shared with the Member of Parliament [Tamika Davis, Jamaica Labour Party] that the NWC has in place [plans] to do an upgrade from Green Island by replacing and upgrading the pipelines into that pumping station so that we can pump more water up to Cauldwell and then to Ginger Hill,” stated Kerr.

He also said pipelines will be extended to the Kendal water supply system along with the installation of a pumping station which will allow the commission to supply upper and lower Rock Spring communities.

Kerr was responding to queries from the
Jamaica Observer during a tour of the parish with the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Matthew Samuda on Wednesday. A part of the minister’s itinerary saw him commissioning a new water supply system in Pondside.

Samuda said the project will take up to three years to be completed.

“That will be a two-to-three-year project because it involves tanks, additional pumps, etc, but the piping work will start in the new fiscal year, which commences in April. We will start the tendering process at that stage,” he said.

In 2022, the
Observer reported that there was a lack of a potable water supply in the Kingsvale area of the parish despite a steel tank erected by the NWC approximately 25 years ago. Water was expected to be pumped from the Logwood Treatment Plant, which is located approximately 18 kilometres from the tank located in Ginger Hill, Kingsvale. However, residents say the community was only served intermittently — for approximately six months — with the domestic supply following construction before it ceased.

Since then, the community has been depending on trucked water from about 10 trucks that make several trips per day.

Meanwhile, Samuda said the pump at the Kew Pumping Station is to be upgraded at a cost of $20 million. He said the current 75 horsepower pump will be upgraded to one that is 150 horsepower that will help to better serve several areas which have seen an increase in population.

Water from the Great River Treatment Plant in the parish is pumped up to a storage tank in Clifton and Askenish. It is then gravity-fed to the communities of Greenland, Middlesex, Dias, Cacoon, and Blenheim among others. Last year, the local government and community development minister’s model community of Chambers Pen was added to the network.

“This $20-million investment will benefit more than 4,000 households. We are very happy about that. It will obviously significantly increase the reliability and the capacity of the system to ensure that our citizens in and around this area benefit and get the water that they desperately need and deserve,” stated Samuda.

An elated MP Davis said the pump improvement project has been long in coming. She said her constituency has been crying for water for years and will now see a notable improvement.

Samuda also took the opportunity to mention the government’s Integrated Water Development strategy where in excess of US$210 million will be spent to upgrade systems within Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland over the next four to five years.

Kerr explained that under this project, the Great River Treatment Plant in Hanover and the Roaring River Treatment Plant in Westmoreland will be expanded, transmission pipelines from Rusea’s High School to Negril will be expanded and new lines laid from Roaring River into Negril.

A start up time frame for the Roaring River project was not provided. However, Kerr said the project is currently at the procurement stage, in line with the public investment appraisal system.