KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Government is to spend $750 million to purchase generators to ensure that National Water Commission (NWC) facilities that are still without electricity are brought back online.

This will allow for the remaining 15 per cent of the NWC’s customers who are still without water following the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 3, to have their service restored.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in a statement in the House of Representatives where he provided another update on the Government’s recovery and relief efforts following the hurricane.

He said 13 major towns have been restored with water supply, with facilities in Black River in the hardest-hit parish of St Elizabeth, partially restored.

“Overall, 78 critical systems are still dependent on and awaiting JPSCo (Jamaica Public Service Company) restorations. The government is clear that those citizens without access to potable water currently are suffering, and the NWC is working closely with the JPSCo to have these systems energised to alleviate the struggle being experienced by citizens,” Holness said.

The prime minister pointed out that the 15 per cent of NWC customers still without water are served by just under 50 per cent of the NWC’s pumps which number over 300.

“These pumps, in many cases, are in remote areas, in many cases with the greatest damage to the electrical network. It is for this reason, that I have instructed the NWC to rent every available and appropriate generator to give support to communities,” said the prime minister.

“We will be mounting these generators on flatbed trucks, so that they can move between communities, to allow for a temporary reprieve while storage tanks, both for households and communities, are refilled,” Holness added.

He said 50 such mobile generators are being targeted to work in parallel with the JPS efforts. The prime minister said the mobile generators will be deployed effective today, July 17, to supplement those already placed at pumps serving hospitals, other medical facilities and infirmaries.

“I have given Minister (Matthew) Samuda an instruction, to pursue an aggressive resilience plan for the NWC, to ensure that all major systems serving population centres possess redundancy through the purchase of generators. The first phase of this will cost approximately $750 million,” the prime minister said.