POINT, Hanover — Residents of western Jamaica who have long been plagued by water woes could see relief within a matter of weeks, according to the minister who oversees the water portfolio, Senator Matthew Samuda.

Some of that will come from previously announced plans to truck water, distribute tanks, remove calcium build-up from pipes, in addition to repairing and replacing old leaky pipes.

Samuda, who is minister without portfolio for water, environment, climate change, green and blue economies, explained that one million gallons of additional water have been realised from efforts by the National Water Commission (NWC) to address areas of concern.

“We’ve readjusted some projects, admittedly from other parts of the country, to use equipment and materials that would have been slated for other spaces. We have made the intervention in line with the commitment to do so. We expect the benefit of that additional million gallons should be evident. Some of it should be evident already, but certainly by the end of that work in three weeks, it should be in a way better space, certainly in the West End area and even on Beach Road as it is affectionately called,” he said on Wednesday at a stakeholder meeting on water resilience in western Jamaica held at Grand Palladium hotel in Hanover.

Samuda also spoke about non-revenue water (NRW) or leaking pipes that are being addressed within the Negril area.

Negril falls within both Hanover Western and Westmoreland Western.

“It is water that we collect, store, process and distribute that doesn’t quite make it to your pipes. Over the last two months we have completed work on six major leaks along that space. We expect to complete works on the Salt Creek Bridge which I know has been a source of deep contention and deep concern within the next two weeks,” stated Samuda.

Pipelines on the West End in Negril are also being addressed, he said, adding that 1.2 kilometres of line replacement were delivered for the commencement of work.

“Heavy equipment was moved into the space yesterday (Tuesday) and work actually started today (Wednesday). We expect those works to be complete in three weeks. Now, when one adds up the work in West End, the work on Salt Creek Bridge, and the additional line works that have been done, we expect to be saving approximately one million gallons that were being pumped into the ground. That is a major improvement that we expect to see at the back end of these works,” Samuda told the meeting.

“For residents and stakeholders of Hanover, we are aware of four major areas of degradation and real needs. We do expect to do some significant works over the next eight weeks that will have a similar impact, certainly more in Western Hanover than [the] eastern basin where the leaks have been uncovered,” he added.

In April he had told Nationwide News Network that up to 70 per cent of the treated water in Hanover is lost to leakage. He said, then, that a total overhaul was needed to bring about resilience.

On Wednesday, Samuda also revealed that decalcification work done on the network leading from Great River Treatment Plant in Hanover near the St James border leading westerly towards Negril is also bearing fruit.

“I’m happy to report that that work was complete as of [last week] Friday. Now, that’s a major step for us, it’s a major step for St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland because that water at Great River pumps back to St James and pumps westerly towards Green Island. It never used to be able to get to Green Island. On the way here I received videos, I believe from Industry Cove [adjacent to Green Island], showing Great River water actually reaching as far now as Industry Cove,” he pointed out.

Samuda said this will allow water produced by the Logwood Treatment Plant in Hanover to focus more on Negril.

“The Norman Manley, Beach Road and the road going up to West End especially, once that work is done on the distribution line, should see significant improvement,” he said.

Due to the shortage of piped water, residents and businesses have to spend large sums of money to truck the commodity to their premises. The State also has systems in place to truck water to residents. Samuda described it as “the most expensive, inefficient, ineffective primitive way to get water but it is the first line of defence when you have a crisis”.

He said efforts are being made to fix the problems within the system.

“We will be establishing a direct line where persons can privately report concerns. There will be coordination with the police and MOCA (Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency). Where we allocate the resources it’s not sufficient to fix all problems, but the resources and the water must actually reach the people in the communities that we will send the trucks to. We will be asking the community to participate with us in a particular way to ensure that we have the information because ultimately we can’t take action without information,” said Samuda.

He added that there will be a “private line where the NWC will compile information in Kingston and provide it to us at a ministerial level so we’re able to see if there are systemic issues. If they are one-off instances, we pass it on to the management to have that issue dealt with.”

Negril resident Lenbert Williams, who has been among those most vocal about the resort town’s water woes and was present at Wednesday’s meeting, told the Jamaica Observer that he was satisfied with what he heard from the minister.

“The increased volume and additional one million gallons is welcome news. Lady Prince [Princess Hotel] will be opening [on June 15] and they will be consuming at least one million gallons of water. That in itself should nullify the demand for Princess and, hopefully, water generated by Logwood [treatment plant] will be diverted to Negril. That, too, is also welcome news,” said Williams.

He said Samuda has promised to visit Negril in two weeks’ time.

“We promised to be respectful and for him to meet the people because, previously, these meetings just involved a few people from civil society and were filled with staff and friends from the same political party. We want the minister to meet with the people who are suffering and in their plight, and offer reasonable solutions which involve putting water in the pipes,” stated Williams.