Pickersgill gives water project thumbs up

Kimmo Matthews

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

MINISTER of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change Robert Pickersgill last week said he was satisfied with work done so far under the National Water Commission's (NWC's) Jamaica Water Supply Improvement Project (JWSIP).

JWSIP, a $17-billion project, is the single largest project ever undertaken by the water company. Divided into two segments, the project is to bring an additional 20 million gallons of water to residents in Kingston, and St Andrew, St Catherine and other parishes.

NWC said under segment A, it has completed the installation of some 70,000 new meters on customers' premises in parishes across the island and was moving to complete renovation to the Constant Spring Treatment plant, the largest in the island and the Caribbean.

"Let me congratulate the contractors, the commission (NWC) for the work done so far," said Pickersgill.

He was speaking during a tour of the Constant Spring treatment plant, which will serve residents in communities along Spanish Town Road, Half -Way-Tree, Norbrook, Cherry Gardens, Havendale, Constant Spring, sections of New Kingston, among other areas.

The minister said the project would also help to cut down on the frequent water disruption experienced by some customers.

At the same time, he noted that he was pleased with the NWC meter installation system, which the entity said is now complete. Under that project, the NWC said meters had been put in on premises that previously did not have any while replacing defective ones.

Chief engineer at the NWC, Garth Jackson said the new metres would provide more accurately registered water consumption patterns as well as low-flow pressures in the pipeline.

"The new metres have been approved by the Jamaica Bureau of Standards and comply with ISO standards," Jackson added.

Meanwhile, the NWC said it would continue to educate customers to be more vigilant in their water usage, repair leaks quickly and employ water conservation practices.