Describing the Hermitage Dam in St Andrew as a “national risk”, Matthew Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, disclosed that plans are in progress to replace its wall.

Speaking at a virtual forum, dubbed ‘Tackling Jamaica Water Woes’, he stressed that the dam, built in the 1920s, needs to be upgraded.

“Hermitage was built with a 50-year engineering guarantee, it is now 95 years old. It is time to replace that dam wall, there is a tree root in the base of the wall, it is a risk, it is a national risk,” he said at the forum hosted by the Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies, Mona on Wednesday.

According to the minister, design work, costing approximately $150 million, is being done on the facility this year with a goal of putting it to tender next year for its expansion or replacement.

“We expect to go up, I don’t know what the final engineering will show… maybe 200, maybe 300 metres from the current dam wall and that will significantly expand the capacity. In building that new wall it will give us the space to desilt the current system and increase capacity significantly,” he said.

the Wag Water River near Stony Hill, holds 393.5 million gallons of water and supplies thousands of residents in Kingston and St Andrew.

Yearly drought conditions which impact water availability and water quality is exacerbated by climate-change, noted head of the Climate Branch at the Meteorological Service Division, Jacqueline Spence-Hemmings.

“The changes in weather patterns will of course affect water supply, and below average rainfall levels result in persistent drought across the island,” she said, stating that a holistic approach to water management will become paramount.

But arguing that even with the impact of climate-change “Jamaica still has sufficient fresh water to satisfy its needs”, Samuda asserted that the island’s water woes are not purely because of this global issue, rather it is due to a lack of investment in infrastructure throughout the years.

“Jamaica simply has not invested in the water-related infrastructure that it requires to ensure that we have sufficient potable water, sanitation access, and irrigation water for its population needs, that is just impatient of debate,” he said.

This, he argued, contributed to and is a result of the country’s developmental challenges.

“Despite having thousands of hectares of irrigable lands, we have not built in the irrigation systems in St Elizabeth, Trelawny, St Mary, St Ann, Clarendon that would make our land productive for an economy that depends on agriculture,” he said.

Additionally, he stressed that the expansive utility footprint of the National Water Commission should allow it to serve 85 per cent of citizens, instead it only serves about 75 per cent. There are also significant gaps in the municipal water system, he stated.

“When you have the conversation with the common man the first comment they’ll make is Jamaica needs another dam, we need another reservoir and I believe they are right. However, to build another dam we absolutely must cut the inefficiency and the leakage from our distribution network,” he said.

To this end, he noted that the government has reduced non-revenue water in Kingston to 38 per cent.

Non-revenue water is water that has been produced and is “lost” either as real or physical losses (for example, through leaks and overflows) on one hand and as apparent or commercial losses (for example, through unauthorised use, theft, and metre under-registration), and authorised unbilled use such as water supplied to fire hydrants.

He outlined a US$3-billion infrastructure investment that the government is considering to build the country’s water resilience. This includes building smaller reservoirs in other parishes, increasing the number of community tanks being built in the hilly areas of the country, as well as distributing more than 50,000 water tanks.

“We are indeed at varying stages, some are (at) analysis, some project design, some at procurement in building in the sort of capacity that we believe you need,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Arpita Mandal, senior lecturer and post-graduate coordinator in the Department of Geography and Geology, Faculty of Science and Technology, UWI Mona, believes consideration should also be given to improving the island’s hydro-meteorological network to enhance observation capabilities.

“Although we have upgraded a lot of our met service stations and, active monitoring, upgrade of the stations, maintenance of the stations are very important. Both the Met Service and the WRA (Water Resource Authority) stations often get affected by flash flooding so we need funding to keep them up and running,” she said.

Photo caption: Minister without portfolio in the Misitry of Economic Growht and Job Creation Matthew Samuda speaking during the grand opening of the National Water Commission Falmouth Commercial Office.

Follow the Faculty of Science and Technology on Instagram @uwimona_fst and on Facebook at The Faculty of Science and Technology, The UWI Mona. For inquiries, WhatsApp us at 1-876-552-4691, call us at 1-876-927-1660-9, or email us at fst@uwimona.edu.jm.