Rural Water Supply Limited responds to Jamaica’s water challenges
“Today we are putting more pressure on freshwater resources than ever. Between a rapidly growing population and a shifting climate, water stress – and therefore water risk – is increasing around the world.”
– Cora Kammeyer – The World’s Water Challenges (2017)
HOW CAN Jamaica, an island in the tropics with picturesque waterfalls and a name meaning ‘land of wood and water ’, possibly experience water challenges, one may ask? Well, with a population of approximately 2.7 million residents (STATIN 2016), Jamaicans currently use over 1.08 billion gallons of water per day. While the country may have an abundance of natural resources, we are not exempt from facing water pollution, water scarcity, saline intrusion, and the many other implications that climate change and our growing population bring.
It is known that Jamaica gets water from springs and rivers in the mountains and t hrough abstraction from constructed wells in the plains. However, how many of us know that wells in t he regions of l ower St Catherine and Clarendon have been affected by saline intrusion in recent years? What if I told you that some of the drilled wells on the north coast are now extracting saline water? The idea of Jamaica having water problems is no l onger farfetched or a thing of the future. It is a present-day crisis that must be addressed with sustainable solutions.
Rural Water Supply Limited, formerly known as Carib Engineering Corporation Limited, understands the need for nature-based solutions to the water challenges that Jamaica is experiencing and will face in the years to come. Over the past two years, this engineering firm has designed, constructed, and, in some cases, rehabilitated over 60 rainwater harvesting systems and catchment tanks as well as other modalities across the island. These projects have benefitted more than 24,000 residents in rural communities. While rainwater harvesting may not be as popular in urban areas, for some rural areas, it is the only available source of water. Rainwater harvesting is an effective means of ensuring a steady water supply to these isolated and drought-stricken regions of the island through precipitation.
While finding alternative water sources is important in mitigating the effects of these current and future water challenges, it is equally important that Jamaica seeks to counter the rapidly advancing effects of saline intrusion.
Rural Water Supply Limited is committed to developing such initiative, and, through a collaborative effort with the National Water Commission, we have designed and constructed an artificial groundwater recharge system (AGRS) in Innswood, St Catherine. This system will increase the groundwater potential by treating and discharging surplus surface water being sourced from the Rio Cobre canal system into sinkholes and wells in the Innswood area. The AGRS will naturally treat the water to potable standards prior to reinjection into the groundwater systems. It will reduce the risk of salinisation of the existing wells by pushing back seawater that has been intruding into the wells, thereby making available more potable water. In other words, it will replenish the groundwater without excessively depleting the resources available.
Rural Water Supply Limited has been serving Jamaica for the past 35 years and will continue to make strides in the development of sustainable water supply systems for the foreseeable future, a task to which we are truly committed.
In this World Water Day celebration, let us, as a nation, aim to explore, develop, and implement nature-based solutions to mitigate and counteract water challenges not only for ourselves, but also for the future generation.