Approximately one thousand residents of Bunkers Hill, Mears, Broadleaf and Nairne Castle in Northern Clarendon are set to benefit from improved access to potable water.
This follows the commissioning of the $91.6 million Bunkers Hill Water Supply Project.
A solar-powered pumping system has also been installed to help reduce operating costs and address challenges caused by intermittent electricity supplies in the area.
Matthew Samuda, Minister of Water, Environment & Climate Change, said the project came at a critical time, as Jamaica continues to face drought conditions.
He added that the project should improve the residents’ quality of life.
“It is a serious investment in your quality of life, in your public health, and in the prospects of your future prosperity,” he told the residents in attendance at the commissioning ceremony.
He added that this project was part of a much larger national requirement.
“We had a study done two years ago by the World Bank, and for us to achieve water resilience in Jamaica, it was their assessment that we needed to invest some five billion US dollars between now and 2035 to have a ten-year run-up to achieving water resilience.”
That water resilience aspiration, he said, was “particularly important in the context of what we face as a nation at this stage.”
The Bunkers Hill project was implemented by Rural Water Supply and handed over to the National Water Commission for operation and maintenance.