The Government will, as of Friday, commence the distribution of near 10,000 water tanks islandwide as part of efforts to combat the meteorological drought now affecting the country.

This was first promised by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness in his budget presentation last year.

The tanks will be distributed through the office of Members of Parliament (MP) who have each been allocated 150 tanks.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Matthew Samuda, provided the update on Tuesday during the sitting of the Standing Finance Committee examining the 2025/26 Estimates of Expenditure for the upcoming fiscal year that gets underway on April 1. He said the letters to each MP were awaiting his signature.

Samuda said the tanks were in addition to the recent decision taken by Cabinet to approve $150 million for the trucking of water to hard-hit communities.

“One hundred and fifty tanks of varying sizes, from 400 gallons to 1,000 gallons, will be made available to each member of this House for distribution within their constituencies. The constituencies which have had the worst impact so far from the drought, which are five per cent of NWC (National Water Commission) systems which are currently going through regulation, will receive an immediate allocation of $2 million for trucking [water], per Member of Parliament,” Samuda said.

The municipal corporations will manage the payment of these bills.

On February 4 Agriculture Minister Floyd Green announced that with the island experiencing lower than average rainfall since December last year and with the effects already being felt by farmers, the Government was responding with a raft of measures, including a $30-million water trucking programme as part of a $134-million allocation to tackle the problem.

At the time, Green told the House of Representatives that no parish was experiencing a meteorological drought but stressed that it was important to recognise that seven of 13 parishes recorded below-average rainfall, ranging from 53 per cent to 85 per cent of their 30-year climatological mean.

“This shortfall in precipitation has resulted in challenging conditions for our agricultural sector, particularly in areas that have recorded consistently low rainfall. The impact of this deficit is particularly concerning for farmers who rely on regular and sufficient rainfall to sustain their crops and livestock,” said Green.

He noted that even in cases where some parishes experienced wetter-than-normal conditions, disparities in rainfall distribution have led to inconsistencies in water availability. He said farmers in parishes such as Portland, St Mary, and Kingston and St Andrew, where increased wetness was recorded, may not immediately feel the strain.

“However, in most of our western parishes, including Westmoreland, St Elizabeth, and Hanover and the central parishes of Manchester, and Clarendon, they saw rainfall levels below December 2023 and below their 30-year average. Unfortunately, these are some of our most productive parishes,” Green said.

At a post-Cabinet media briefing on February 26, Samuda noted that the country was now experiencing drought conditions. He announced that with $40 million of the $150 million that was approved to be made available immediately, the beneficiary parishes were Manchester, Westmoreland, Clarendon, St Elizabeth, and the eastern sections of Portland and St Thomas.

Samuda said then that 23 NWC systems were experiencing intake shortfalls, equating to five per cent of these facilities. These, he said, were now being regulated.

They, however, do not include Hermitage Dam and Mona Reservoir, which serve the Corporate Area and which were at near full capacity at the time.