65,000 customers remain without water supply, says Samuda

KINGSTON, Jamaica – As at 2:00 pm Saturday, roughly 65,000 customers representing 12 per cent of the National Water Commission’s (NWC) total customer base remain without service following an islandwide blackout on Friday night that lasted into Saturday morning.

Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samuda, in sharing the information during a joint press conference with, Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications Daryl Vaz at the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company headquarters, explained why some residents were still without water.

“The timing associated with charging an electricity line is a much shorter period than the timeline associated with backfilling water lines that ran dry because of the power outages that affected our power systems,” he said.

He indicated that assessments conducted on Saturday confirm that major treatment plants and pumping stations are back online, however, full restoration in some communities will be delayed due to electrical power outages affecting facilities centred in the parishes of Clarendon, St Elizabeth, and St James.

Although power was restored to customers by Saturday morning, inclement weather during the day caused some power loss in several areas.

“While primary production facilities are rebounding quickly, our immediate priority is maintaining backup power systems and mobilising localised maintenance support to safely restart other systems and rebuild critical storage capacity in the lagging parishes,” Samuda said.

In sharing key parish updates the minister indicated that in:

• Kingston & St Andrew (KSA) – major systems are operational

• St Catherine – most networks are online and the Spanish Town Treatment Plant is operational while the Old

Harbour system is affected by secondary outage impacting Old and New Harbour.

• Manchester – primary facilities are online, and storage and distribution tanks are actively being replenished. Gradual restoration is expected for Ingleside, New Green, Pusey Hill,

Warwick re‑lift stations and Perth Estate storage.

• Clarendon – there are persistent outages in Southern Clarendon affecting New Town, Preddie, Kemps Hill, Milk River and Longville Park.

• St James – Great River is restored while Terminal Reservoir and Appleton Hall tanks are being replenished. There are temporary disruptions in Torado Heights, Rhyne Park, Cornwall Courts, Ironshore, Norwood, and Farm Heights.

• Trelawny – Martha Brae is operational.

• St Elizabeth key systems are restored, including Benlomonds, Union, Bogue, Burnt Savannah, Hounslow, Content, and Southampton.

• St Ann – Bogue and Harrison Town networks are restored; while the Minard plant is under assessment after an electrical trip.

• Hanover – Maintenance teams are servicing the Shettlewood system.

• Portland – Grant’s Level system is running at 30 per cent output on generator while minor facilities are logged for maintenance.

• St Mary – there are localised impacts in Iterboreale and Annotto Bay.

• St Thomas and Westmoreland: Comprehensive field evaluations are ongoing with updates pending.