Tighter water restrictions to come, says Samuda

MINISTER of Water, Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samuda has put Jamaicans on warning for even tighter water restrictions come Monday, as the country continues to suffer with worsening drought conditions.

But Samuda says the Government is providing even more assistance in the worst-affected areas.

“There are areas that in the coming week or two, if the rainfall projections and forecasts from [meteorologist] Evan [Thompson] are not incorrect, could see greater restriction in terms of the hours and the availability of supply, especially coming off of the line that is supplied by Hermitage [dam] and sections that are supplied by the Mona Reservoir. You could see in the next few weeks some communities which get day-on-day-off supply. That is something that we’re putting the nation on guard for. And that means that we need greater coordination with our facilities, especially our education facilities and health-care facilities, to ensure that we are indeed supplying communities in longer periods of shortage,” he said adding that as of Wednesday morning, water storage level at the Mona Reservoir stood at 33.5 per cent while Hermitage was at 48.3 per cent.