WITH much of the island experiencing drier-than-normal conditions, which meteorologists say could last until October, the Government has allocated $350 million to part finance drought mitigation efforts.

Minister with responsibility for water Matthew Samuda made the announcement on Wednesday at a post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House.

“Those [mitigation] measures will include $250 million which will be executed by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, which will see trucking… that will be directed through Members of Parliament to the tune of approximately $150 million,” Samuda said.

“It will see further trucking support to the National Water Commission (NWC) of approximately $50 million to service critical infrastructure and $50 million towards additional tank purchases,” Samuda added.

Farmers will also benefit as $100 million of the amount will be spent to execute drought mitigation measures in farming communities.

“This amount will be shared between water, trucking, drip irrigation systems, and grass purchases,” said Samuda.

He noted that it is unusual that drought mitigation measures would be needed at this time of the year, but said it was not surprising based on reports from the Meteorological Service (Met Service) of Jamaica.

Earlier in the briefing, principal director of the Met Service Evan Thompson pointed out that Jamaica was not getting the rainfall in line with its 30-year calculated averages.

According to Thompson, the dry conditions started in December last year and by January noticeable dryness was observed in all parishes when matched against the 30-year average. Seven parishes were recorded as experiencing drought conditions between December and January.

By way of outlook Thompson said the July-September period could see wet conditions for the western half of the country with the eastern half continuing to experience dry conditions.

Also addressing the media briefing, acting president of the NWC Garth Jackson said 44 of the country’s 450 water utility systems have been impacted by the drought, with 23 currently operating at less than 50 per cent capacity.

“Eastern parishes have about 40 systems which are affected by the dry season whereas the western parishes have about three which are affected. The rest of the systems: Hanover, Westmoreland, Manchester all are operating at larger capacity currently,” said Jackson.

Meanwhile, Samuda argued that despite the debilitating drought, the billions of dollars invested in the water sector by the Government over the past nine years has resulted in more than 350,000 Jamaicans being made drought-resilient.

According to Samuda, the Government is now midway through $22 billion of capital investments in the water sector across potable water, sewerage and irrigation that will benefit more than 900,000 Jamaicans when completed.