Protecting Kingston’s vital water sources
Learning from the Latin American experience
IN THE current attempt to establish a Water Fund for Kingston as a naturebased response to the city’s perennial water woes, stakeholders in the local water sector are benchmarking their plans and actions against the tried and proven experiences of countries in Latin America, which account for one-third of the world’s fresh water.
Water Funds are organisations that design and promote financial and governance mechanisms by engaging public, private, and civil society stakeholders to contribute to water security through solutions that are grounded on nature-based infrastructure and sustainable management of watersheds.
The idea of the world’s first Water Fund emerged in the year 2000 in the high Andean wetlands. Renowned as a habitat and a migratory link for birds flying south in the winter, this area is also as a vital source of water to Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, and several large urban population centres in South America.
The deteriorating wetlands, which posed a serious threat to Quito’s water supply, sparked widespread concern, mobilised the efforts of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Municipal Drinking Water Company of Quito to pioneer the idea of the Water Fund.
This triggered a chain reaction in other cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo in Brazil, and Bogota, Colombia, to adopt the model, which eventually led to the creation of the Latin American Water Funds Partnership in 2011.
This successful partnership has provided seed capital and technical assistance to institute and refine the Water Fund methodology for expansion and adoption by countries like Jamaica and other Caribbean small island developing states.
The goal of the Latin American Water Funds Partnership (Alianza Latinoamericana de Fondos de Agua), as agreed in 2011 among the Inter-American Development Bank, the FEMSA Foundation, the Global Environment Facility, International Climate Initiative and The Nature Conservancy, is to contribute to water security in Latin America and the Caribbean through the creation and strengthening of Water Funds.
UNEVEN SUPPLY DISTRIBUTION
Jamaica and Latin America possess abundant water resources but suffer from the challenge of uneven supply distribution, due in large measure to rough terrain and degrading watersheds from harmful human activities and the impact of climate change.
A 2012 United Nations Environment Programme report verifies that water resources in Jamaica are sufficient to meet the country’s demand but are unevenly distributed in both time and space, which often leaves southern parishes such as Kingston and St Andrew facing water shortage during the dry season and summer months.
Establishing a Water Fund for Kingston, categorised as a‘scarce water city’, is a novel initiative that demonstrates a sustainable response that goes beyond the pipes, dams, treatment plants, and other infrastructure that allow water to reach the city. Rather, the laser-like focus of this proposed Water Fund for the city would be directed at preserving the integrity of the environmental systems that are the natural sources of water.
In Jamaica, the governance and management of water is guided by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, which has responsibility for water as well as some focal agencies, principally the Water Resources Authority and the National
Environment and Planning Agency.
The supply and distribution of water across the island is managed by the National Water Commission, the Rural Water Supply Limited and an array of private water providers. Water for agricultural use is supplied to farmers by the National Irrigation Commission.
These and other stakeholders in the water sector are concerned with issues of national water security, that is; the island’s capacity to achieve successful and comprehensive management of its water resources and services to meet demand.
Having water security implies the ability to provide an adequate supply of quality water to meet residential, energy and industrial needs.
With funding support by the CocaCola Foundation, a situational analysis commissioned by The Nature Conservancy and released in April 2020 describes the water resource situation associated with Kingston and St Andrew as complex.
The study urges that the first order of business for a Water Fund for Kingston should be focused work to reverse the degradation of the Hermitage Sub Watershed in Wag Water River Watershed Management Unit in Upper St Andrew, which are the primary sources of 40 per cent of the city’s water.
As Jamaica takes decided steps towards water security, it is evident that a Water Fund for Kingston, modelled off the Latin American experience, will over time restore and conserve the Wag Water River Watershed, improve water supply and management, and in the near future, make frequent water lockoffs a distant memory in a well-watered city.