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NWC urges conservationThursday, July 18, 2013 | 1:05 PMKINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Water Commission (NWC) says a continued fall in inflows to its major Corporate Area storage facilities has caused major concerns.The 809-million-gallon capacity Mona Reservoir is presently at 58 per cent of its capacity and the Hermitage Dam at a mere 36 per cent of its 393-million-gallon capacity. The NWC is therefore urging Corporate Area customers to conserve water in view of the very low levels at the facilities.The NWC said that very little rainfall was received in the critical areas of the Hope River and Wag Water River watersheds during the recent secondary rainy period in May/June, providing very limited flows to the reservoirs. Even if the primary rainy season in October/November delivers significant rainfall in these critical watersheds, the management of the limited supplies between now and then will be challenging, Vice president for Water Operations, Mark Blair, said. Blair added that the NWC has had to restrict its output from the Constant Spring Water Treatment Plant to nearly half its production capacity as a result of the limited rainfall since last year. “If it were not for the major improvements recently undertaken at our major facilities and the mitigation measures put in place since February of this year, the present bad situation would have been much, much worse,” said Blair.As a result of the drought management measures already being implemented by the NWC, Blair said customers served by the Hermitage/Constant Spring Water Supply System will continue to have no piped water between 9:00 pm and 5:00 am each night until conditions improve.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserverProfessional divers take measurements and samples from a depleted Hermitage Dam on Friday of last week as part of the Commission’s Drought Planning and Mitigation exercise.
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Inflows down at Mona Reservoir, Hermitage Dam
