‘Deliberately misleading’

MINISTER of Water Matthew Samuda has scoffed at the claim by Opposition spokesperson on water Ian Hayles that the Government has failed to embrace solar technology to ensure continuity of the National Water Commission (NWC) when the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) fails.

According to Samuda, the charge by his Opposition counterpart is either “wilfully ignorant” or “deliberately misleading”.

Following a shut-down of the JPS grid on Friday, Hayles, in a statement on Sunday, called for the immediate implementation of a policy position that moves critical NWC infrastructure onto solar and advanced renewable technology.

Hayles argued that the NWC’s water systems had a dangerous reliance on the JPS and charged that the Government’s current stance “was not merely an oversight but a governance crisis that threatens public health, tourism, and the daily lives of citizens in heavily populated communities nationwide”.

He further demanded that the Government table a comprehensive energy resilience plan for the water sector in the current parliamentary session.

But in an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Monday, Samuda said the Government has already started investing heavily in measures to improve the NWC resilience to power disruptions, including the installation of 31 large-scale generators across the water network since Hurricane Beryl sideswiped south-western Jamaica in 2024.

Samuda said $1 billion has already been spent on the programme which targets 110 critical systems that supply more than 70 per cent of the NWC’s customer base.

“It’s a very disingenuous statement to give the impression that we’ve not started to build resilience on the generator side. On the side of the discussion related to solar, it is well-known — and I would have articulated in my sectoral presentation in April — that the Government is midway in $850 million of energy projects related to the NWC,” said Samuda in an interview

He added that Hayles already knew of the reform taking place on the water systems, pointing to work being done in the Westmoreland Western constituency which the Opposition spokesman represents in Parliament.

“It will take some time because of what we are able to spend to build in this resilience, but we have started, and that is a well-known fact… Hew would be well aware that we installed a generator at the Logwood facility, which supplies Negril, and he would be well aware that the reason they have a challenge, or had a challenge for a period, was because of an act of vandalism after Hurricane Melissa [October 2025], where someone went and destroyed the generator. Now, we have purchased a replacement,” said Samuda.

Pointing to the suggestion by Hayles that greater use of solar energy could have prevented widespread water disruptions during the islandwide blackout by the JPS, Samuda argued that not all NWC pumping systems can be powered by renewable energy sources.

He said the land requirements and capital costs associated with solar infrastructure make it impractical to convert the agency’s entire network to renewable energy.

“Any person who has worked in the water sector or energy sector at any point should be very clear that it is not possible for the NWC to separate itself totally from JPS. Our light bill is approximately $1 billion a month, give or take, depending on the fuel rates, etcetera. If that cost isn’t borne by NWC, it will be borne by consumers, because the grid costs will remain,” Samuda added even as he acknowledged the need to drive down energy cost for the water commission.

He told the Observer that the Government has plans for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects at some high-consumption NWC facilities and it has already implemented solar solutions at several plants.

“We’re upgrading our oldest pumps to make sure that they’re more energy efficient. We’re rewiring many of our facilities to make sure that we don’t have energy losses within the operation. We are using solar at our offices to bring down costs and to allow for more operational hours without the associated costs. But I think it was, you know, just raw politics and an interest to score points from those who will not take the time to interrogate the issue,” maintained Samuda.

He added that work to turn the Mona reservoir in St Andrew, into a renewable energy plant was also underway, noting that a private investor has already shown willingness to take on the project and that more than US$60 million has been dedicated to it.

Samuda also challenged Hayles, who worked in the Ministry of Water as state minister from 2012-2016 when the People’s National Party (PNP) was last in power, to outline what investments were made during his time in office.

“What should be asked of the Opposition is how many generators they bought between 2012 and 2016 while he was minister of state. I’m not aware of any; could be some, but I’m not aware of any. How many solar panels did they install between 2012 and 2016? Because it is in 2009 that we started seeing solar technology being widely used in Jamaica.

“So this idea that somewhere it can be achieved in a year with our fiscal space is simply not so. There are no delays in implementation. We have said over the coming years, each year we will continue to invest until we achieve that full resilience,” charged Samuda.