Water woes to end soon

The National Water Commission (NWC) has estimated that 30,000 to 40,000, or 10 per cent of its customers would remain without water this morning, but supply should return to 99 per cent of households by the end of the week.

At the same time, however, the NWC has warned it might take months to complete repairs made necessary as a result of weather conditions associated with Tropical Storm Nicole last week.

Yesterday, NWC Communications Manager Charles Buchanan told The Gleaner that the one per cent of customers who would remain without water at the end of the week consist of persons living in communities with limited supply due to extreme damage.

"The instances of significant damage are going to require further work on our part," Buchanan said.

Major damage includes the dislocated pipeline running from the Seaview Treatment Plant to Jacks Hill, a section of the pipeline running under the Hope River in the vicinity of the Harbour View ford that was washed away and the Hope River raw water gutter and intake structure that has been blocked.

Store water

Persons are also advised to store water as there may be service disruption regardless of location.

Buchanan also told The Gleaner yesterday that customers were encouraged to boil their water as an extra precaution.

"All the water coming through is going through treatment process. However, it is standard procedure, where flooding takes place, for customers to store and treat their water," he said.

Repairs over the next few weeks will involve going into the gullies, repairing walls and re-routing pipes where necessary.

"It is important to know that repairing won't happen overnight," he said.

Over the weekend, the NWC has put more than 60 water supply and wastewater systems back into operation, improving its water production capacity to more than 90 per cent.

Tropical depression 16, which was later upgraded to Tropical Storm Nicole, affected 460 water supply and 68 wastewater treatment plants.

Meanwhile, the Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd (JPS), up to yesterday evening, was working on restoring power to 8,000 remaining customers who were affected during last week's weather disturbance.

Approximately 170,000 customers were without electricity.

"We have significantly reduced the number of persons without power this morning (yesterday) and by tonight, we'd have completed all parishes except for individual customers," said Winsome Callum, head of corporate communications at the JPS.

- L.R.

Persons without electricity supply may text 579-7531 and include information such as the name of the community, parish and a contact number.