NWC proud to serve Jamaica’s youth population

Commission forges powerful connections with children

THE NATIONAL Water Commission (NWC) is pleased to share the occasion of World Water Day 2024 with our various partner agencies under the theme ‘Water and Youth’.

As a major provider of water and sewerage services, it cannot be overstated how the NWC’s ongoing operations, infrastructural improvement and community engagement provide critical support to Jamaican youth.

These individuals form an emerging and important subset of our communities and our learning institutions, and stand to emerge into the professional spaces in a matter of months and years.

Data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) shows that Jamaica’s youth population accounts for approximately one-fifth – numbering more than 600,000 persons of school age. This includes students who are enrolled across 3,000 preprimary, 995 primary and preparatory schools and 180 high schools, both public and private.

For this group, the NWC plays numerous important roles, including:

• Water Supply Delivery

• Public Education

• Conservation Knowledge

• Employment Opportunities (internship and scholarships)

On a daily basis, the NWC provides water via pipeline and trucking to these schools and also to the homes and businesses that support these students.

Our teams foster and maintain relationships at all levels with these schools to ensure that the delivery of water is timely and of the highest quality.

In delivering the product, the NWC’s engagement extends to building awareness about the process of harnessing, treating and supplying water to all 14 parishes on the island. We demonstrate to students the inputs for water delivery – from source to customer premises – and this helps them to appreciate the value of water.

Hence, the subsequent conversations that we promote can focus on best practices, including conservation, recycling, repairs and replacement.

Our partnerships with the youth is not just centred on the direct development of water. In fact, the NWC operates within a scope that is founded on our slogan – ‘Serving You In So Many Ways’. This mantra manifests itself in the support facilities that we provide to our youths.

These include:

• Scholarships to children of employees

• Annual holiday employment and internships for students

• Sponsorship to schools in the form of cash and kind contributions

All these initiatives are targeted at the wholesome development of young people who will ultimately form the next generation of leaders, business operators, homeowners and community builders of this land of wood and vital water resources.

Our commitment at the NWC is to forge such powerful connections that the value of water is appreciated as a driving force for the development, peace and prosperity of our wonderful nation.

Senator Matthew Samuda, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, leads the charge by officially commissioning the Cascade-Pondside Water Supply Upgrade Project at Merlene Ottey High School in Hanover. Also present (from left) are Dave Brown, member of parliament for Hanover Eastern; Renascia Walcott, the Student Council president at Merlene Ottey High School; Kevin Kerr, NWC’s acting president; Audley Thompson, managing director at Rural Water Supply Limited; and representatives from the school and the NWC.

Kevin Kerr, acting president at the NWC, makes a donation to Claudette Whyte, director of the Jamaica National Children’s Home in St Andrew. As part of the NWC’s ‘We Care Charity Initiative’, the Corporate Division donated food, clothing, toys and other items to the home.