Jamaica Droughts and Water Lock offs

Jamaica’s Aging Water Systems Falter Under Population Growth, Construction,  Intense Heat and Drought

Long before Jamaicans declared war on the environment, when Kingston and St. Andrew were a greener city with a much lower population size, our water harvesting, storage and distribution infrastructure was not efficient enough to effectively survive drought and supply us with water. It was never fit for purpose. These days, Kingston, and St. Andrew has changed because we declared war on every inch of greenspaces, converting single family homes with beautiful green yard spaces into Gated Concrete Townhouse Compounds. If you build it, they will come and they are a coming. We are now building for the Global diaspora. 

Construction of Hermitage Dam began in 1924 and it was inaugurated on 4 May 1927. It was developed to solve a 1927 problem. According to the 1921 census of Jamaica, the total population of the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew (KSA) was 118,309. In 1927, the Hermitage Dam (with a capacity of 460 million gallons) was built by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) to meet the domestic water needs of the KSA.

By the 1943 census, the total population of KSA had more than doubled to 238,229. In 1946, the Mona Dam (with a capacity of 825 million gallons) was built by the colonial government of Jamaica with a grant from the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund, more than doubling the stored water to meet the increasing needs of the KSA. 

According to the 2011 census, the total population of the KSA had much more than doubled again to 662,426. No new reservoir has been built since independence to serve the increasing water needs of residents of the KMA, and none is planned. This is 2023, with the development of the highways and over development of Gated Compounds, rural to urban and returning residents migration is taking place at an alarming rate.

As a result, we increase the population size in major cities 3 to 5 times their original size but without redevelopment of our water harvesting, storage and distribution infrastructure to meet the growing demands. Back in the days, we could go a month without rainfall before we suffered from drought and water lock offs. Now we cannot even go one week without rainfall before the dams start running dry.

We are a very shallow, superficial people, gated concrete compounds reminds us of foreign. It gives us a feeling that we are developed, in the big league now with slow moving electronic gates with coded entry. To some, Jamaica is the new Florida. But what we have done is like building our mansions on sand because we do not care about the fundamentals, we do not care about a strong foundation. We care only about the Floss and living within the floss bubble, but bubbles have a tendency of bursting.

Some of us grew up having to go to the standpipe for water and when we finally get piped water into our homes, we suffer regular water lock offs. Drought and inefficient water supply cost Jamaica about 5% of GDP. When it comes to water all our Government failed us, both PNP and JLP. Because promises of better water supply are a means to an end. It keeps them in control, they get votes, power, and wealth. Before the 2016 General Election, Holness and his cronies jumped around like circus clowns promising to revolutionize Jamaica’s Water harvesting, storage, and distribution infrastructure. To date all they, members of the Political Class, brought to the table is water trucks, some of which were cesspool trucks converted to deliver drinking water to the poor and suffering, plastic water tanks, so I assume our bodies are full of microplastics and water shops.

What they did was monetize water, so their friends and family can get lucrative contracts. Instead of borrowing cheap Chinese loans to redeveloped and redesign Jamaica’s water harvesting, storage and distribution infrastructure, they borrowed money to build a new vanity bling not -fit-for-purpose parliament.

East Portland residents mount roadblocks to protest bad roads, lack of water  

No other parish in Jamaica gets as much rain fall as Portland. Out of the 365 days of the year, it rains about 350 days in green, lush Portland and YET, Portlanders do not have any water to drink! If we were to employ the economy theory of Specialization, then Portland would be the parish, where we build several dams, and they would supply the other 13 parishes with water. Water would be the main economic business of Portland. Instead, 95% of the rainfall in Portland gets washed out to sea.

When it comes to who gets water, the tourism industry is priority. The tourist must drink first before the locals and I am shocked they are not bottling their wastewater for the rest of us locals to consume. Rural areas, that never use to suffer water shortage are now suffering drought.  That could be because water that should go to farms, is being diverted from local communities to the tourist locations.

  

I know some people cannot believe that after all the rainfall and flooding, why we still do not have enough water in the dams. 90% of all the water fall on Jamaica gets washed out to sea, even our gullies were designed to dump water into the sea. The dams are filled with dirt debris, and sludge and not enough space to hold water. We converted green space to concrete but failed to build proper drainage to harvest that water. So, the second it rains, it starts to flood and even during the rain we remain in a drought.

Between 2014 and 2015, Jamaica experienced one of the worst seasons of drought in recent history. The impact on the Jamaican economy, especially rural livelihoods, was devastating. According to reports, the annual agricultural production declined by 30 percent from 2013 to 2014. This, along with brush fires, resulted in a $J1 billion ($6.5 million) loss for the economy. 

According to the Statistical Institute (STATIN) report, the agriculture sector constitutes between 7 and 14 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and almost one fifth of the employed labor force. The importance of agriculture to Jamaica’s economy, coupled with the country’s sensitivity to the effects of climate change and severe weather events, leads to a domino effect. Not only do crops suffer, but farmers lose resources and income, while local production and consumption are severely impacted.

This devastating drought highlights how climate change not only impacts the environment, but also countries’ economies and families.   
 

Jamaica experienced six incidents of meteorological drought during 2021, with conditions ranging from moderately dry to severely dry.

The western parish of Hanover was the only one that did not experience drought conditions, while St Thomas experienced five periods of drought, the most by any parish.

This is according to data contained in the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2021. The climate data was provided by the Meteorological Service, Jamaica (MSJ)