Water security for Kingston in a COVID-19 world
AS JAMAICA, like the rest of the world, begins to ease restrictions and to reopen the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaicans emerging from many weeks of lockdown and regimented handwashing to ward off the coronavirus have had pause to think on weightier issues of water availability and security.
What if at the height of the outbreak, the public water and sanitation systems were to fail? And now that we are in the annual dry season, how would the city cope in the event of a second wave of COVID-19?
These are scenarios too overwhelming to contemplate, especially for the over 937,000 residents of Kingston for whom water scarcity and frequent water restrictions have become a feature of life.
By global standards, Kingston is defined as a ‘water-scarce’ city requiring between 189,000 and over 227,000 cubic metres of water a day (between 55 and 60 million gallons a day).
The current watershed systems supplying the city are under constant strain to meet demand, and based on data provided by the National Water Commission (NWC), the city has not been optimally supplied with water for the past six years.
In the court of public opinion, the view is that the capital city in the largest English-speaking nation in the western hemisphere, after the United States and Canada, has never had enough water to meet demand.
In May 2019, in the throes of severe drought conditions and water restrictions, Prime Minister Andrew Holness drew public attention to the state of the island’s water sources as a root cause of Kingston’s water challenges in an address to the Parliament, pointing out that the 52 water sources tapped by the NWC have failed to supply enough water to Kingston and St Andrew over the six-year period 2013-2018, with production levels falling as low as 38-41 per cent of daily demand.
Kingston needs an urgent solution to its water dilemma.
In late 2019, stakeholders in the water sector comprising over 80 representatives drawn from the Government, private sector, academia, civil society, NGOs, and the international development community met in another round of workshops organised by the Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Jamaica to search for solutions to Kingston’s water challenges.
WATER FUND
It was an inflection point in the journey since 2016, led by TNC, to establish a water fund for Kingston.
But what, exactly, is a water fund?
Water funds are organisations that design and promote financial and governance mechanisms by engaging public, private, and civilsociety stakeholders to contribute to water security through solutions that are grounded on nature-based infrastructure and sustainable management of watersheds.
The initiative is both compelling and sustainable and models the Latin American Water Funds Partnership and the real-life experiences and best practices of several countries in Latin America that have set up water funds to improve the quality and supply of water to their cities and big population centres.
More important, a water fund for Kingston would support the ongoing work of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), the Water Resources Authority, the Forestry Department, the National Water
Commission, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, and other critical players in the water sector to manage our watersheds.
This water fund would concentrate efforts on conserving the Wag Water River Watershed in the upper St Andrew foothills of the Blue Mountains, the source of 40 per cent of Kingston’s water supply. By securing this vital water source, the fund would reduce the adverse effects of human and natural degradation directly impacting the quality and availability of water.
FOOD SECURITY
The downstream benefits for the city would be immense, ushering in a new milieu of reliable water supply and reduced lock-offs to homes, hospitals, schools, commercial businesses, and industrial operations.
Water is life, but so, too, is food.
COVID-19 conversations inside homes across the Kingston Metropolitan Region are commanding a new respect for the value of not only water but also food security, prompting visceral concerns about issues of sustainability and self-sufficiency.
How quickly will the postCOVID-19 recovery be?
To what extent will the de-coupling of global supply chains affect trade and food imports into Jamaica? Will we have enough water to increase the agricultural outputs to feed ourselves?
History would suggest that the Tainos, the original Jamaicans who gave us our name ‘Xaymaca’ – Land of Wood and Water – discovered that the basis of life depended on clean, toxic-free water sources that yielded abundant streams, rivers, and watersheds to sustain ecosystems and livelihoods.
In the face of the greatest public-health crisis of our times, Jamaicans would do well to adopt a Taino state of mind that prioritises urgent and sustained investments in our essential water resources, from source to supply.
For starters, what if 500,000 Kingstonians, nearly half of the city’s residents, decided to personally invest 100 Jamaican dollars towards their water security?
That would be the equivalent of $50 million to kick-start a water fund for Kingston, and for Kingstonians, who value water more than any other public utility, it would be a sensible bet on the city’s economic well-being and vibrant way of life.