Water Minister Matthew Samuda has pushed back against doubts over the service restoration progress being made by National Water Commission (NWC), declaring that the agency is on track to reach 85 per cent in the next three days.

Amid growing public frustration and questions raised by Parliament’s Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee on Wednesday about the accuracy of restoration figures following Hurricane Melissa, Samuda on Thursday defended the numbers presented by the NWC, insisting they were grounded in technical assessments, not estimates.

Speaking during a media briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister, Samuda reported that as of Thursday morning, 76 per cent of customers have been restored. He emphasised that the figure relates specifically to NWC customers, who make up approximately 78 per cent of Jamaica’s households.

“The next 12 per cent, give or take, is supplied by small municipal systems which also have their own electricity challenges and a suite of small private systems that exist virtually in every parish, and I think that also needs to be understood. So of the 78 per cent of households, 76 per cent of those households, customers, businesses… have restored water,” he explained.

According to Samuda, progress continues despite severe challenges at some of the 763 NWC systems islandwide. However, he stressed that the disconnect between community experiences and the national percentage is largely due to the critical role of electricity.

“I will say it again so that it is widely understood even within the Parliament and elsewhere, the supply of water is inextricably linked to the supply of power and three-phase or triple-phase power is what we refer to; meaning, if a community gets back light — which we are happy for those communities — but the pump doesn’t get three-phase power, then we are unable to energise that pump,” Samuda said.

That, he added, was what the NWC learnt and explained in great detail after the passage of Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, and has been doing the same since the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Samuda noted that the restoration figures must be understood within the context of how water systems function, arguing that differing community experiences do not invalidate the national percentage. Many of the NWC’s systems, he said, can only be restarted once roads are cleared, infrastructure is repaired and, crucially, once electricity is restored in full.

He made it clear that despite the visible challenges across the island, the agency was steadily recovering from some of its worst-affected sites.

“We have deployed over 45 rented generators thus far in addition to the 30 plus that the NWC used to operate its treatment plants and indeed some of its larger distribution systems, but as we did mention, there are 760-plus systems which, in many cases, many of them are very small and they do not have generators,” he said.

While residents in western and northern parishes have questioned why their taps remain dry, Samuda pointed to significant progress in major systems across Manchester, St Elizabeth, and Westmoreland. He reported that areas such as the plains of Whitehouse, Savanna-la-Mar, and Black River were now receiving water, crediting a combination of restored power and the strategic use of generators.

Still, he acknowledged that some of the country’s largest systems remain highly constrained.

He noted that the Brown’s Town and Minard wells in St Ann are among the most critical still awaiting electricity.

“We have completed clearing of access to the production facilities at Minard… It supplies over 30,000 customers. So that would affect everything from Brown’s Town to Runaway Bay, going west into Discovery Bay [and] it is an energy issue that is affecting that,” said Samuda.

“The second one to be understood is the production from the Martha Brae system. The Martha Brae system affects everything from the western boundary of St Ann to central St James being the terminal reservoir, which also affects places like Cornwall Regional, and that plant is operating at approximately 50 per cent because it is not yet energised by JPS (Jamaica Public Service). It is a general back-up generator that we are running, which means as you backfill the lines, you will have challenges in and around that area,” he explained.

To strengthen the response in the most vulnerable areas, Samuda announced that the Government is securing 30 standby generators to support communities expected to face the longest delays due to damaged electricity infrastructure.

At the same time, he noted that the Government has issued an islandwide call to local tank manufacturers as part of a wider emergency supply strategy.

“There are four manufacturers who produce tanks in Jamaica. We have asked them for their total assessment of free capacity, meaning how many tanks can you produce. We will be procuring all of what they’re able to produce by December 31 for distribution in the most affected parishes, meaning central to western Jamaica, to assist with households which have been damaged and have no access to water, so at least when the trucking comes, they have appropriate storage,” he announced.

Despite the scale of the damage, which Samuda estimates will surpass $10 billion in losses and restoration costs, he maintained that the NWC was making consistent strides. The first phase of the recovery effort — valued at $3.25 billion — covers emergency repairs, water trucking, clearing access routes and acquiring generators. A separate $6.95-billion programme will focus on resilience, including replacing underperforming generators and strengthening major transmission mains.

Even with the challenges ahead, Samuda insisted the pace of restoration remains strong.

“We are in a better place today than we were three days ago, and we expect to be in a better place in three days than we are today,” he said.

As he defended the numbers, the minister appealed for public understanding while reaffirming his confidence in the NWC’s projections. With additional generators arriving, trucking increasing and systems gradually regaining power, Samuda maintained that the agency remains firmly on track to reach its target within days.