MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness says in the coming weeks residents of Manchester will benefit from another phase of the Greater Mandeville Water Supply System as the flow of this precious commodity to households will increase.

Describing the $4.5-billion project as the largest expenditure on any water system in the parish and Jamaica’s history, Holness said it brings water from the plains of St Elizabeth, up Spur Tree, and into Mandeville.

“That will serve not just central Manchester, but it will help south Manchester, and north-west Manchester — and that is a very huge project,” he told supporters at a JLP workers’ appreciation meeting at Holmwood Technical High School in Manchester North Eastern on Sunday.

The Pepper wellfield, down slope at low altitude in St Elizabeth, is the main source of water for Mandeville which is more than 2,000 feet above sea level and atop the Manchester Plateau.

According to Holness, with the improved water supply Mandeville will benefit from a boom in construction.

“As a result of that, we have been getting many inquires now about housing. So, solving the water problem has also now solved the housing problem, so not only will the greater Mandeville area have more reliable water, but what we are going to see is a boom in housing construction, private housing construction taking place,” he said before promising to remedy water woes across the parish.

“I have asked minister [with responsibility for water] Matthew Samuda to start work on what we are terming the Greater Manchester Water Supply Project where, once and for all, we will ensure that there is water in all the rural reaches of Manchester so that everybody who lives in this parish will be able to have water in their homes.

“They can go in their shower and turn on the pipe and say ‘Showa!’,” Holness said in a light-hearted play on the JLP’s verbal greeting ‘Showa Labourites’.

“We decided that this is something we have to do as part of our general rural development strategy,” the prime minister said.

He told his audience that aside from the Greater Mandeville Water Supply Project, other water projects are ongoing in the parish.

“Already we have started to upgrade the Moravia Water Treatment Plant, we have started to upgrade the Two Meeting Water Treatment Plant. Both of these would account for an expenditure of $180 million — and this would include putting in and repairing the pumps,” said Holness.

“We have started to lay pipes to interconnect between Mile Gully and Christiana — and that is $80 million worth of pipe-laying work,” added Holness.