Water restrictions to begin Monday, NWC announces

 

Water restrictions will begin Monday as the National Water Commission (NWC) scales back distribution to manage the commodity and made a persistent decline in rainfall.

 

Acting President of the NWC, Garth Jackson, says later on Friday or by the latest Saturday, the Commission will make public the finalised plans for its scheduled service to customers. 

 

He provided a breakdown of what customers, particularly those in the Corporate Area, served by the Mona Reservoir and Hermitage Dam, can expect.

 

"There's going to be restrictions from our 'usual' 24-hour service to something less than that. Pressures may be modulated, may be reduced, on obviously the flows which I've pointed out. And that's basically in areas served by the Mona Reservoir. In terms of Hermitage, that's going to be a little bit different. It will come a little bit later on. And what you're going to see is customers above...Dunrobin Avenue, coming from Constant Spring... those will be served in the nighttime period, whereas those below West King's House Road going into Crossroad, Half Way Tree, those will be served in the day so that the commercial customers should have supply when they are operating."

 

Mr. Jackson added that mitigating measures have also been implemented to ensure a consistent water supply. This, as the water level continues to fall by about 1?ily at the Hermitage Dam.

 

"We'll be bringing additional water into the system from the Rio Cobre pipeline, which...serves both Portmore and Kingston and St. Andrew. And therefore, we're going to have to modulate the volumes which go into Portmore. We have done significant non-revenue water in Portmore, and therefore, the demand for water there is significantly less than what it was a few years ago. And so we'll be able to bring additional water into Kingston along Washington Boulevard, along Dunrobin Avenue, along Spanish Town Road," he outlined.

 

Mr. Jackson was a guest Friday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106 FM.

 

The restrictions come amid persistent drought conditions across the country.