Connors/Ginger Ridge water project ready for commissioning

“Connors/Ginger Ridge in St. Catherine, this project has just been completed and is slated to be opened in mid-October,” said Audley Thompson, RWSL’s managing director.

Thompson’s comments were made in a press release issued by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation in which he highlighted several similar projects undertaken and completed by the agency.

“We have projects underway, Banga Ridge, this one has now been completed, Stony Hill in Portland, and Cornwall Barracks all in Portland. Pear Tree Grove in St. Catherine, here we built a solar system that is now in operation; Maybole in St. Elizabeth has just now been completed and we are thinking of handing it over to the St. Elizabeth Municipal Corporation,” he said, while noting approximately 5,000 residents will benefit.

The Rural Water Supply Limited is one of the state’s agencies tasked with assiting the country achieving universal access to potable water by 2030. However, the RWSL’s primary focus is increasing access in rural communities classified as non-utility service areas (NUSA).

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Arlene Williams says approximately 15 percent of Jamaicans live in non-utility service areas.

Williams said: “Increasing the water footprint in non- utility service areas is a priority area for this ministry, as we seek to improve the lives of rural residents. We continue to provide oversight to the Rural Water Supply Limited to ensure that the target set out by the National Water Sector Policy is met. We know that the allocation for the RWSL is not adequate to provide immediate solutions island-wide; nevertheless, we are working to bring water into some areas that have not had access for several years.”

According to the National Water Sector Policy and Implementation Plan (2019), non-utility service areas are where it is not feasible or cost-effective for a utility service provider such as the National Water Commission, to supply potable water, the ministry explained.

A budgetary allocation of J$280 million has been made to the agency for the 2023/2024 financial year, the minister advised, with work set to commence on several water supply projects that will benefit roughly 7,000 residents of communities in Portland, St. Mary, Trelawny, Manchester, Clarendon, St. James, and St. Thomas.

Thompson, meantime, added that the RWSL employs various methods to provide water to non-utility service areas.

“We consider several factors when implementing a project,” he said. “We consider the water source, the size of the community, how the system will be managed, and so on. Currently, we implement spring entombments, small, piped gravity-fed or solar-powered systems, and community or individual rainwater harvesting systems or catchment tanks."

Much of the agency’s work in rural communities involves catchment tank repairs, he noted such as the Elliston Catchment Tank in southern Manchester which was upgraded to the tune of J$3 million during the last financial year.

“The municipal corporations mainly in Manchester, upper Clarendon, St. Ann, and St. Elizabeth, have a number of rainwater catchment tanks. Some of them are in disrepair, and several of them have no covers, so we make it a programme on an annual basis to repair these tanks and hand them over to the municipal corporations”, he said.

For the 2022/2023 financial year, the RWSL completed several projects island-wide valued at J$446 million, benefitting 20,000 residents.

In August the RWSL constructed and put into commission a 20,000-gallon block and steel rain water harvesting tank at the Davis Primary and Infant School at a cost of just over J$5 million.

Old Harbour News understands that Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Member of Parliament Dr Christopher Tufton are expected to be present at the commissioning service at the Ginger Ridge Primary School on October 11, 2023.