ST JAMES, Jamaica — Water Minister Matthew Samuda has announced initiatives that Government will be undertaking to provide water for the education and tourism sectors, as the dry spell intensifies.

He revealed that in a move to increase water storage over the next four to six weeks, Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday morning gave a directive to himself and Minister of Education Fayval Williams to undertake an assessment, in partnership with the Rural Water Commission Limited, on all public schools in Hanover and Westmoreland.

“As you would have seen the projections for increased rainfall do not paint the picture that we would like. As such, we will be intervening to ensure that all of our schools have adequate storage. I’ve also had discussions with Mr Kevin Kerr, about increasing the monitoring and rates of trucking to our educational institutions. We don’t intend to allow for any learning loss with any of our schools,” Samuda said.

“Our regional manager has done a good job in communicating with the regional directors of the Ministry of Education, indeed all of our schools,” he said, adding that a troubleshooting network will be set up including a WhatsApp group and an email line dedicated to schools to ensure that they are not disrupted.

Samuda also revealed that the National Water Commission will be putting a safety net in place to ensure that hotels from St James western to Westmoreland western will be protected during the drought.

“I want to assure the hotel sector that I would have met with Mr [Kevin] Kerr, [acting president of the NWC] earlier this morning (Monday) and there is a safety net that will be put in place to ensure that hotels from western St James, all the way into western Westmoreland, at the tip of the West End, will be protected and their business will not be disrupted,” Samuda said.

He was speaking at a press conference on Monday to address the water crisis in Negril.