Residents Warned to Brace for Traffic Delays Due to Work Under Western Water Resilience Project

Residents across northwest Jamaica are being advised to expect disruptions, as work on the first phase of the Western Water Resilience Project is set to commence within the next four to six weeks.

Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Matthew Samuda, provided an update during the Northeast St. Ann Health and Job Skills Fair held at Lawrence Park in St. Ann’s Bay on Friday (May 8).

Mr. Samuda said a significant portion of the materials needed for the project have already arrived on the island, with about one-third of the required supplies being transported from the pier to storage facilities in Great River, St. James, and Martha Brae in Trelawny, in preparation for the start of the work.

“No doubt we’ll start to get some of the complaints about the traffic that is inevitable from it. However, I want to assure residents that we’ve been meeting with the police, tourism stakeholders [and] with the commercial stakeholders to do work at the hours that are least disruptive,” he stated.

“There will be some disruption, and you know, there’s no way around that, but I want to assure residents that we’re doing everything within our power to limit that disruption,” he added.

The Western Water Resilience Project is being undertaken at a cost of US$425 million, with phase one valued at approximately US$176.22 million.

It is a multi-phased initiative, where critical infrastructure enhancements will be done in the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James, Hanover and Westmoreland to increase water production and improve the reliability of the water supply, to meet the demand for potable water and sewerage services in the residential, commercial, tourism and institutional sectors of these parishes.

The first phase of the project will focus primarily on upgrading and rehabilitating aging transmission pipelines that carry water across the northwestern corridor.

In the meantime, the health and job skills fair was held the theme, ‘Future Ready: Empowering Health, Skills and Employment’ and was organized through a partnership between Minister Samuda, in his capacity as member of parliament, and the Jamaica 4-H Clubs.

He said the event focused on improving productivity by connecting residents with health services, training opportunities and employment prospects.

For his part, Jamaica 4-H Clubs Manager for St. Ann, Tedroy Gordon, said the event brought together a broad coalition of government agencies and educational institutions, including the HEART/NSTA Trust, the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, Moneague College and Browns Town Community College.

He noted that the Rural Agricultural Development Authority and the Jamaica Agricultural Society were also on hand to provide services for farmers in the parish, while the Social Development Commission offered support for young entrepreneurs.

“In terms of the job fair side of things that has been coordinated by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and we have about five employers who are recruiting,” Mr. Gordon stated.