KINGSTON, Jamaica —The National Irrigation Commission Limited (NIC) has received funding of just over $107 million through the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining to procure additional generators.

This is aimed at strengthening the resilience of the country’s irrigation systems during periods of power disruption.

The generators will improve the NIC’s capacity to maintain water supply to farmers, particularly following extreme weather events that impact the national electricity grid, such as Hurricane Melissa on October 28 last year.

Director of Engineering and Technical Services at the NIC, Rohan Stewart, said the investment forms part of the commission’s forward strategy to ensure continuity of service.

“As it relates to the way forward, the NIC, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has received funding to procure additional generators to the tune of just over $107 million, which we are actually in the process of procuring,” Stewart said.

He explained that NIC’s irrigation systems are designed with resilience in mind, noting that major water production facilities were not structurally impacted during recent adverse weather events, notably Hurricane Melissa.

“Our systems have been developed and built with resilience in place. The major water-production facilities were not impacted because of the resilience that we had,” he said.

According to Stewart, the primary challenge affecting irrigation delivery following severe weather is the loss of power, underscoring the importance of reliable backup generation.

“When we [did our assessment], we realised that the only damage that we suffered from the water production system was the loss of power,” he said, noting that generators are strategically deployed to priority systems, including those serving livestock farmers and shared supply arrangements.

While the majority of NIC’s systems are operational, he indicated that those that were affected due to power constraints have resulted in some customers still being without water.

Once procured, the additional generators will ensure the resumption of water to those customers, as well as support NIC’s longer-term planning, including improved pre-positioning of equipment and fuel management ahead of hurricanes.

The National Irrigation Commission continues to work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining to modernise its operations and safeguard irrigation services that are critical to agricultural production and food security.

— JIS