$24.8 Billion Western Water Resilience Project to Relieve Water Woes in Negril and Western Parishes
“The only way that we are going to bring water to your home is to ensure that there is a government in place that continues to run the economy of the country in such a way that it generates the resources to make investments like this $160 million US investment in the water of this country.”
-Prime Minister Holness
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced a historic water infrastructure investment project for western Jamaica.
The project forms part of the Western Water Resilience Programme.
In a decisive move to improve water supply to the parishes of St. James, Hanover, and Westmoreland, the government has approved a “Design & Build” contract with Vinci Construction Grand Projects.
Speaking in Parliament on May 28, 2024, the Prime Minister announced that the Cabinet has approved a ‘Design & Build’ contract with Vinci Construction Grand Projects for two projects as part of the Western Water Resilience Programme.
It will ensure water is available to residents living in the parishes of St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland.
“The only way that we are going to bring water to your home is to ensure that there is a government in place that continues to run the economy of the country in such a way that it generates the resources to make these investments, like this $160 million US investment, in the water of this country. It gives me great pleasure to say to the people of Negril, thank you for your patience, thank you for your continued understanding, the government is working we have put this through the emergency procurement process and we will start and we will see and improvement in the quality of your water and the resilience and uptime of the supply,” said Prime Minister Holness.
The Prime Minister underscored the government’s commitment to essential measures, stating; “So, as a government, we don’t only do the things that are popular, we also have to do the things that are right. When we talk about the fiscal programme and fiscal discipline, people interpret it as government mustn’t spend. That’s not the only part of fiscal responsibility. It means that government must run the affairs of public sector companies and corporations such that they don’t require the government to pay for inefficiencies.”
Prime Minister Holness expressed gratitude and understanding to persons in western Jamaica: “It gives me great pleasure to say to the people of Negril, thank you for your patience, thank you for your continued understanding. The government is working; we have put this through the emergency procurement process and we will start and see an improvement in the quality of your water and the resilience and uptime of the supply.”
Prime Minister Holness continued, “The conversation about water sometimes takes a perspective that it is a simple matter of hooking up a pipe to a supply to a pump and running to the end user. What we have just announced here is a nation-building investment.”
The first phase of this programme involves the installation and replacement of two main transmission pipelines. These pipelines will run from Martha Brae Water Treatment Plant in Trelawny to Terminal Reservoir in St. James and from Great River Water Treatment Plant in St. James to Negril in Westmoreland.
The pre-engineering phase has commenced at a cost of J$32 million and will last for six weeks. During this period, the National Water Commission (NWC) will collaborate with the Ministry of Finance to facilitate the capital deployment of US$160 million (J$24.8 billion) for these pipeline replacements. This allocation is larger than the SPARK allocation for the parochial component.
Highlighting the importance of this investment, Prime Minister Holness remarked, “The government of Jamaica is spending $24 billion on these pipelines, which is more than we are spending in the municipal corridor component of the SPARK programme, which is $20 billion island-wide.”
Reflecting on the progress made in improving the NWC, the Prime Minister said, “We have managed to improve the running of the NWC; there are still risks, still threats, but nowhere like what it was a decade ago. We don’t get credit for that, the public doesn’t see that. That’s not an issue that the electorate is going to say yes, the government has done well,’ but without that, there is no significant investment to be made in water.”
In the meantime, Prime Minister Holness noted that for the avoidance of any genuine misunderstanding or political mischief, the major upgrades to transmission mains from Martha Brae and the Great River Treatment Plant WILL commence this year under Emergency Procurement.