FOR years, the arrival of Jamaica’s dry season has brought with it an all-too-familiar ritual for thousands of households: empty pipes, water trucking, and anxious residents wondering when supplies will return. But Water, Environment and Climate Change Minister Matthew Samuda says that cycle could soon come to an end for those living in the Corporate Area.

The minister pointed to the completion of the Rio Cobre Water Treatment Plant as a game-changing investment in the country’s water resilience. The US$92-million public-private partnership project, now under construction in Content, St Catherine, will treat raw water from the Rio Cobre and inject 15 million gallons of potable water into the National Water Commission’s (NWC) distribution system every day, supplying more than 150,000 customers across St Catherine, Kingston and St Andrew. The project remains on track for completion in May 2027.

Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s St Andrew offices last Friday, Samuda said the plant is specifically designed to eliminate the deficit experienced during Jamaica’s worst droughts.