Senator Matthew Samuda has thrown cold water on calls for the government to order water harvesting to address the crisis caused by the annual drought season.
While acknowledging that water harvesting will play a “critical role” in building Jamaica’s water resilience, the minister says at a post-cabinet news conference on Wednesday that passing legislation making it mandatory is not the answer.
Instead, he said the country was nearing completion of water harvesting guidelines, which would be published in the Official Gazette and provide guidance for planning authorities and developers alike.
“We expect to have these guidelines finalized within the next 30 to 60 days and then awareness raising to all of our planning officers will take place,” said Samuda, the minister without portfolio at the Department of Economic Growth and Water-Responsible Jobs Creation.
According to Samuda, issues like water harvesting have always been seen in the context of a housing crisis in Jamaica, and “anything you insist that increases the cost of housing, there’s always been a general space sensibility.”
Section 61(a) of the Building Act 2018 requires buildings to have provision for water collection. However, the rules that would allow enforcement are not yet in place.
“We need to make sure every Jamaican household collects water,” opposition Land, Environment and Climate Change spokeswoman Sophia Frazer-Binns said in a recent interview with The Gleaner. Her suggestion was supported by Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica leader Lenworth Kelly.
Frazer-Binns also lamented that drought conditions were being exacerbated by climate change.
While acknowledging the impact of climate change on drought season, Samuda said the government intends to take responsibility for water harvesting through its public buildings in areas where there is no National Water Commission (NWC) footprint, and will also encourage citizens to make collecting water a habit.
Meanwhile, Evan Thompson, director of Jamaica’s weather service, said the country experienced consistently low rainfall from October to February, resulting in a severe drought situation.
“We saw that, cumulatively, this was probably the lowest amount of rainfall we have ever seen in Jamaica, as far as our records showed,” he said.
And although there was some recovery in March, when the country received 84 millimeters of rainfall, just four millimeters less than the expected amount, he said the country was still experiencing a drought.
“It doesn’t mean our drought is broken. It’s going to take a lot more rainfall to make sure we break the drought pattern because we have to look over an eight-week period before we can tell if we’re still experiencing drought,” he said.
Because of this, NWC President Mark Barnett said the agency’s water supply restrictions will likely continue through May.
“Restrictions will not be lifted unless we comfortably see improved inflows into our reservoir storage, which are at comfortable levels. So for the rest of the month and even further into May, the restrictions will still be in place,” he said.
Barnett explained that recent rains have increased water storage at Hermitage Dam to 40.8 percent and at Mona Reservoir to 43 percent capacity.
However, he also shared his concerns about the drought’s impact on the NWC’s finances, explaining that the agency spent nearly $400 million moving water to affected areas.
“It just means that expenses like this would have been taken away from other work we have to do,” he said, adding that their network is also more leaky and more vulnerable to theft due to the drought.
“It is not uncommon for an intermittent supply system like the one we have now to see an increased number of ruptures and leaks. So in drought there is actually a higher risk of more leaks and certainly there is a likelihood of more theft,” he said. “That’s just the reality of the situation.”
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