Where is the water?

Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

There are indications that the explosion of housing development in Jamaica in the 10 years between the last two population and housing censuses has done little to diminish the country's vast network of underground water resources.

The Water Resources Authority (WRA), the agency responsible for the management and protection of the commodity, says at present, Jamaica is using less than 50 per cent of the water available through rivers and scores of aquifers scattered across the island.

The WRA is still updating its assessment of the 'reliable yield' of natural water resources available annually, but the last assessment, published in its 1990 master plan, shows that only 920 million cubic metres of the 4,083 mcm of surface and ground water available annually was being harnessed for use.

Since that master plan was published, data from the 2001 census show that Jamaica's population increased by 226,965, or 9.5 per cent, while the number of housing units, including multi-family dwellings, jumped by 137,900, or 30 per cent when compared to the 1991 census.

It also showed that between 1991 and 2001, the number of housing units in St Catherine grew by 47 per cent, while the population increased 26.3 per cent, or nearly three times the rate observed for the entire country at the time.

WRA Deputy Managing Director Herbert Thomas conceded that increased housing development will increase demand for more water, but asserted that enough natural resources are available to meet all the needs.

"What is required is that we have to manage it to the extent that we meet those demands, but at the same time, we don't compromise the environment," he said.

"In other words, you are not going to overextract to the detriment of the environment and therefore pollute the water. You have to do that balancing act," Thomas added.

He said the fact that the housing boom was largely concentrated in Kingston and St Catherine presented a challenge because these are the parishes with significantly less natural water resources.

Negative impact

"It (natural water resources) can't meet the demand in these areas, so your challenge is really to move it from where you have it to where you don't have it," he said.

Charles Buchanan, the public relations manager for the National Water Commission, agreed that there is "enough relatively unpolluted" water, but cautioned that housing developments, especially unplanned settlements, can have a negative impact on the quality of these water resources.

"When you have very heavy populations the impact increases. The more people you have living in a small area, the more likely it is to be polluted or contaminated by garbage, chemical, or industrial pollutants ," explained Buchanan.

One way to guard against this, he said, was to ensure that developers demonstrate how they are going to provide adequate sewer systems and observe the appropriate "density levels" in the areas where construction is taking place.

"Basically, you are saying it is not sustainable to have more than this number of developments within a particular geographic area," he said.

The WRA deputy managing director said his agency manages the water resources through a licensing system.

"We know how much is going in based on the amount of rainfall, and how much is coming out based on the amount of licences we have given out, and we know how much more we can give without jeopardising these resources," he said.