The Government is to spend US$13 million over the next five years on a major project aimed at reducing water loss and improving the supply of the precious commodity to residents of Portmore in St Catherine.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness last Thursday signed the contract for the Portmore Co-management Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Programme during a virtual ceremony from Jamaica House.
The programme activities, which also have the objective of improving the overall efficiency of National Water Commission (NWC) operations, will be executed by the Commission in partnership with global water utility company Miya Water Jamaica, under a performance-based contract.
Holness, in his address at the signing, pointed out that water loss due to old, leaky infrastructure, inefficiencies, and theft is costly to the Government.
“At some points, as high as 70 per cent of the water generated would have gone into either technical loss that means the system is leaking or through illegal abstraction,” he noted.
Holness said that the programme is a step in ensuring that “we are maintaining the infrastructure we are detecting the leaks.”
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