$94M Connors/Ginger Ridge water project to supply 1,400 residents

This was disclosed during a ceremony to formally activate the system restored at a cost of $94 million by the Rural Water Supply Limited (RWSL) in partnership with the National Water Commission (NWC).

• Connors/Ginger Ridge water project ready for commissioning

The RWSL has however handed over full control of the facility to the NWC, the latter now tasked with engaging residents to become formalize in the ensuing months.

“I know it has been a long time in coming, bringing water to Sandy Ground, Blue Hole, Ginger Ridge, Connors, but there has been many starts and stops. Covid was a big disruption, two years. A number of rains and storms damaged the initial design and it had to be re-done. The contractor had abandoned the project.

“None of those things were in our control but I believe having gone and looked at the project a while ago, I am very, very hopeful and confident that you have a good project in these parts and it’s going to see water provision for the people of these communities,” said Dr Christopher Tufton, member of parliament, St Catherine West Central.

Dr Tufton, who is also the Minister of Health and Wellness, made the point to residents in attendance that access to potable water is fundamental right like any established communities across the island.

“You are entitled to it because it is an essential of life but the reality is, it is a project that has taken a lot in terms of resource allocation,” he said.

There is still a long way to go but Jamaica is getting closer to achieving its 2030 development goal of ensuring all Jamaicans have access to potable water and sanitization, argued Senator Matthew Samuda, Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for water in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

Samuda said: “It is an important moment and one that we shouldn’t diminish by just saying it is politics. It is an acknowledgement that the country is getting closer to the point and achieving that 2030 goal of having potable water and sanitation for all Jamaicans.”

He further stated that the country continues to face many challenges to achieve this objective, the most obvious being the dramatic and unpredictable shifts in weather patterns across the globe.

While some section of the communities once had piped water in their homes before the facility fell into disrepair, hundreds more will benefit this time around from more than nine kilometres of transmission and distribution pipeline, the RWSL stated.

“Water will be sourced from the spring source into the pumping network which has a design capacity for 50,000 gallons of water per day. Treated water will be pumped to the Sandy Ground tank and the Ginger Ridge tank facilities for distribution,” stated Audley Thompson, RWSL’s managing director in his overview of the project.

Meantime Kimetha Francis, principal, Ginger Ridge Primary, said the school is grateful for the support from the RWSL and the NWC and anticipates a longstanding relationship into the future with both entities.

“I am happy not only because we are receiving water but I must say that the contractor and the NWC, the adoption of the Ginger Ridge Primary School.

“I am so grateful for the contributions being made to this institution and I must express how thankful we are,” she said.

“You see those railings along the corridors it’s the Rural Water Supply Limited who would have initiated, having heard we needed some help. And not just that but our roof will be fixed as well, we are getting the water harvesting system. So never again should we be calling the water truck for emergency because school will be out because there is no water.”