What is a drought?

Drought is generally defined as a long period – months or even years - of little or no rain, but there are also some more precise definitions for specific types of drought conditions. These differing definitions include:

Agricultural drought – a period when soil moisture is inadequate to meet the demands for crops to initiate and sustain plant growth.
Hydrological drought – period of below average or below normal stream-flow and/or depleted reservoir storage.
Meteorological drought – a period of well-below normal precipitation (rainfall) that spans from a few months to a few years.

There are also different ways of measuring drought but all of them have negative implications for potable water systems. While drought is often used inter-changeably with dry season, the two are not necessarily the same. Dry seasons, when they occur as expected and to the degree expected, are not droughts. Similarly, rain may indeed fall during a wet season, but if it is below 60% of what was expected based on 30-year historical trends, you may indeed have a drought in the middle of a supposed wet season.

In the case of Jamaica, our expected dry season runs from December to April and again in July. Most water supply systems around the world are vulnerable to drought conditions to varying degrees. Like in many other countries around the world and around the region, sections of Jamaica are currently experiencing drought conditions using any or all of the above drought definitions. According to the Meteorological Services of Jamaica, all parishes received below normal rainfall in December 2022. More than half of our parishes were in meteorological drought for November/December, a worsening situation from the not-good months before, compounding Jamaica`s rainfall deficit. Kingston and St. Andrew got only 5% of the rainfall it normally gets in December!

What causes droughts?

Droughts are caused by well below normal rainfall as a result of irregularities in weather patterns (including global warming, climate change, El Nino and other weather phenomena). Localized droughts may also be exacerbated by poor environmental and development practices including issues like de-forestation, watershed degradation and over-use or pollution of water sources.

How is the current drought impacting on the NWC’s operations?

More than 260 of the NWC’s 450 systems are supplied by surface water sources (rivers and springs) that are especially vulnerable to drought. The below normal rainfall over the past several months has severely affected the flows to many of these sources which in turn impacts the volume of water being available to supply customers. The dwindling inflows are not sufficient to sustain normal operations on at least 76 of NWC’s systems.

How severe is the current drought?

The current drought affecting sections of Jamaica varies in severity from area to area or from one water supply system to the other. Inflows into 76 of 450 NWC water supply systems are now well below normal. Other systems are also seeing reduced inflows but have nonetheless been able to produce at or near their normal outputs. Most affected water supply systems are:

Kingston and St. Andrew (Hermitage/Constant Spring, Mona, Hope, Seaview, Griffin, Hall's Delight, Hibbert Spring, John Spring, Middleton, Mountain House, Pulpa Spring, Rose Hill, Solas Spring, Suzie Spring, Barnettwood, Belboa, Bucky Plain, Chu Chu Bottom, McGowan Spring)
Portland (Haining, Long Bay, Norwich, Packi River, Turtle Crawl, Windor Forest)
St. Mary (Crescent, Gayle Spring, Hunts Town, Lucky Hill, Pembroke Hall, Sand Hill)
St. Ann (Avisfield, Blackstonedge, Breadnut Hill, Content, Dawson Town, Fort George, Higgin Town, New Ground, Seville)
St. Thomas (Airy Castle, Arntully Grove, Davis Mountain, Easington, Needham Pen, Nutts River, Old Dumfries, Prospect, Rock Brook, Trinityville, Wilmington)
St. James (Cambridge, Niagara, Mafoota, Endeavour, Dantrout, Vaughnsfield)
Trelawny (Wakefield #1 and #4, Troy, Wilson Run, Ulster Spring)
Hanover (Logwood, New Milns)
Westmoreland (Jerusalem Mountain)
St. Elizabeth (Hannah Spring)
Manchester (Cowick Park, Moravia)
St. Catherine (Goldmine, Sue River)

At the same time, we are also aware that supplies from other providers of all types of water are also being drought affected. Supplies from many minor water supply systems operated by the municipal authorities have dried up; and the demand for irrigation supplies have also increased at the same time that the means to meet the need is reduced. The legal and illegal demand for NWC-supplied water has therefore grown by as much as 50% in some areas during the dry seasons, straining even those systems that have not reduced output significantly.

What is NWC doing about the current drought?

NWC has initiated a number of measures to limit the impact of the current drought. These measures include:

Activation of augmentation wells at Havendale and Beverly Hills
Activation of Booster operations at Molynes, Ferry and elsewhere on the network
Ramped up maintenance on all operable sources and systems including Eastern Headworks, Tulloch Springs and White Marl Wells are up and running
Sharing of supplies between least-affected and worst-affected systems, where possible
Stepped-up removal of illegal connections on the network
Initiated Water Supply Schedule for the Corporate Area and elsewhere as below:

What is being done in the medium and long terms?

Many of NWC’s major projects include a component that aims at building resilience and reducing the likely impact of emergencies like drought. Over recent years the NWC has undertaken major projects like the 8.5MGD Groundwater Aquifer Recharge Project, the recently completed Kingston and St. Andrew (KSA) Non Revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Project, the Spanish Town Road Pipeline Replacement Project, and a slew of smaller projects in every parish islandwide to protect existing water sources, develop larger, more drought-resistant water supply systems, replace existing old and inefficient infrastructure, interconnect more water supply systems for improved manageability and various sewerage projects to protect the underground water supplies have all contributed in some way to building resilience.

The Portmore NRW Project is now being implemented and reaping benefits, while the Rio Cobre Water Supply Project and the Islandwide NRW Project are at early stages. The major mains replacement initiatives along several road corridors along with the NWA will also build drought resistance.

What can customers do?

Everyone can make a difference in 4 main ways.

Be prepared to adjust your usage and store some water in the event water supplies in your area are disrupted or put on a schedule;
Conserve. Voluntary, personal conservation can go a far way in both saving money and saving water for use another day or for use by others in need. Water use can be reduced by up to 30% by simply practicing good conservation measures without any significant inconvenience.
Report leaks on the public network t o 888-CALL NWC so that it can be addressed
Report illegal connections which tend to also waste water because it is not being paid for;

Conserve water by:

Reducing water use wherever possible and finding alternatives to water-intensive activities. For example, turn off all taps as soon as the water isn’t being used and don’t use the toilet to dispose of things that should be in a wastebasket, but do use disposables to reduce the need to wash dishes.

Re-use or re-cycle water whenever possible. For example, re-use the water used to wash plates or clothes to water plants, wash cars or water lawns.

Re-place water wasting devices such a 7- and 5-gallons per flush toilets or gushing showerheads with water-saving devices such as flow restrictors and aerators.

Repairing all leaks – whether they are a nuisance or not or whether they appear to waste a lot of water or not. Even small leaks waste a lot of water over time and various studies show that about 10% of water in homes is wasted due to leaks.

Also, do not leave taps turned on when there is no water in the pipes, as when water returns you may be unaware and the pipe would be left running.

Find more ways to conserve water Conservation Methods