Opinion: We Shouldn’t Have To Go Without Water When There's A Power Failure Due To A Hurricane.

We must end NWC’s dependence on JPS.

A notice posted to X by NWC regarding a water disruption on July 20, 2024 because of a power outage. This affects me.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, I was without piped water for four days. I was among the 70% of customers of the government’s National Water Commission (NWC), the distributor of piped water in Jamaica, who were affected.

The main problem is that when the power supplier, Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) goes down, the NWC pumps on the grid follow suit, and at one point during the hurricane, more than 65% of JPS customers or more than 440 thousand customers were without light.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness acknowledged the issue in parliament on July 9, stating that Jamaica has not developed our water system with an independent power supply, so it’s dependent on JPS, which “has served us well.”

So well has this system served us that now, because of Beryl, the prime minister sees the need for independent back-up power supplies for pumping stations that serve, "critical areas, for our hospitals, our schools, our police stations. Critical industries like the tourism industry, the BPO industry..." He claimed that “we'll take this opportunity to build further resilience in the NWC."

The critical word from the PM's speech was "back-up". In other words, he believes JPS is not an issue.

I disagree.

Being independent of JPS is essential to building resilience. Not only is depending on it ridiculously expensive, but there isn't a day on the island that somewhere isn't without water due to the woes of the power supplier. For instance, I am now again without water because of a power outage, and this has been going on for over 24 hours.

According to the company’s chairman, JPS’ system is only built to withstand up to a Category 3 hurricane. So, if we had taken a direct hit from Beryl as a Category 4 or even a Category 5, JPS may have been inoperable, and, who knows, most of the island could be presently like areas of hard-hit parish St. Elizabeth, which are still without light and water. As it is, as of July 20, Jamaica’s minister in charge of water, Matthew Samuda, says water has been restored to approximately 90 per cent of customers who’d been without supply since the passage of Hurricane Beryl. However, the NWC had previously warned that some areas could be without water for a few more weeks in part because of reliance on the public power supply.

The PM's plan of back-up generators is a poor temporary fix that does not address the issue. Generators, and the gas they depend on, have to be transported by road, and without doubt the deplorable road network would be significantly impacted by a hurricane and delivery would be hindered. Added to that is the cost of fuel. Jamaica can be hit by numerous storms in a year, so we need a permanent solution.

One of NWC’s Biggest Costs is Electricity

In September 2022, Prime Minister Holness said, “One of the largest costs to the NWC, is its energy cost." In March 2023 at the United Nations conference on water, Samuda told the world that, "The high cost of electricity has significantly impacted Jamaica's ability to distribute water to all." Back home, in March 2024, at a groundbreaking of a well replacement project in St. Ann, he was reported as saying that the NWC is the single largest user of energy in Jamaica, an expenditure that can amount to over 30% of its total revenue.

So, the solution is simple: remove JPS from the equation. Jamaica receives copious amounts of free sunshine, but the government paints a picture that harnessing solar power is prohibitively expensive and impossible to implement without investors. They’re wrong, it is possible.

How Can It Be Done?

According to the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2020, the world's best solar power schemes now offer the "cheapest ... electricity in history" with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries. https://www.carbonbrief.org/solar-is-now-cheapest-electricity-in-history-confirms-iea/. In 2021, it was reported that Jamaica had the fourth highest electricity rates in the world, so one would think that the IEA findings apply here. They do:

· In 2012, the then Minister of Energy, Philip Paulwell announced that he is off the grid and expected his solar investment to pay for itself in only 5 years.

· In 2014, minister Paulwell attended the unveiling of the 1.6MW US$3.4 million solar investment at the Grand Palladium hotel that was expected to pay for itself in only 4 years.

· In a 2022 interview, minister Paulwell said that the payback period for a solar investment was only three years.

The decrease in the time to break even i.e. the payback period is unsurprising because the costs of the components have drastically fallen and the technologies have greatly improved.

In my opinion, as the then minister of energy, Paulwell should have started the process to remove all state-owned infrastructure, including water, off the grid and transition from oil to renewables. But under the guidance of the World Bank he decided it was better to transition to natural gas (LNG). Why? This critical decision has never been questioned, but it has left water delivery heavily compromised and delivered electricity rates amongst the highest in the world. This will be covered in the follow-up report.

Financing

According to Minister Samuda, we have a network of more than 730 facilities with average monthly costs of $650 million, which suggests an annual bill of around US$52 million ($650 million × 12 months ÷ $150 exchange rate). Applying a payback period of three years, it would cost us around US$156 million. Even if we applied a payback period of five years to cover contingencies like security features, we’re looking at around US$260 million.

We have the cash. It can be immediately financed from the US$1.7 billion loan facility made available by the IMF, which includes US$764 million from the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) for green energy projects.

The Ministry of Finance recently received US$255 million of the US$764 million, but instead of hearing about what green energy projects it will fund, the only report I’ve seen is from the Jamaica Observer in September 2023 claiming that the US$255 million would be used to refinance debt. The IMF did NOT create the RSF for that use, so the Auditor General must ensure that the money is invested in renewable energy projects, and we should demand that it is used for water.

If the Observer is wrong, and the US$255 million has already been allocated for other green projects, then we should access the over US$5 billion in the reserves. If necessary, the money can be returned when the remaining US$509 million of the US$764 million is disbursed.

Critical, Sustainable and Prudent

Hurricanes appear to be more frequent, so it is inevitable that we will take direct hits. From my research, high-quality solar panels are designed to withstand all weather events, including Category 5 hurricane winds, and those are the ones that should be installed in Jamaica. Green technology continues to improve with solar film being available, and wind turbines are not necessarily giant white fans.

Photo taken from a brochure of Respect Co., Limited in South Korea.

Spending US$255 million now to safeguard our access to our most precious commodity, in addition to eventually saving over US$50 million every year is a no-brainer. The over US$50 million that goes to JPS every year could be invested to upgrade and expand the system, including solar and wind-powered wells and irrigation and the construction of a much-needed desalination plant. Ensuring that all NWC customers have the possibility of access to continuous piped water – even after hurricanes - should be the priority of the government.

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Dr. J. Lennon is an advocate for real change in Jamaica. His website is: LetsBuildaBetterJamaica.com. The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of 18º North. Send feedback to LetsBuildaBetterJamaica@gmail.com

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