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Water Insecurity Could be a Serious Problem for Jamaica in the Future

pipe-water-stock-jun19Water security is inextricably linked to human survival, health, and economic and social well-being. Water scarcity in Jamaica has brought serious development and social challenges. A recent United Nations Development Programme report projected that by 2025, water scarcity will affect 1.8 billion people globally. Currently, 1.1 billion people in developing countries lack adequate access to water. Moreover, food insecurity driven by water scarcity is negatively impacting developing countries, and Jamaica is no exception.

Water access in Jamaica is linked to power, inequality and poverty. Seventy-one percent of Jamaica’s 2.7 million people have piped water, with 5.7 percent of residents relying on water from rivers and 3.1 depending on pond water. One-third of Jamaica’s poorest households rely on standpipes to obtain water, and 30 percent of the poorest households obtain untreated water from sources such as rivers. On average, Jamaicans spend 2.1 percent of their income on water services. Yet the poorest households spend 3.2 percent of their income on water, compared to the richest households spending only 1.8 percent.

Furthermore, climate change impacts the quality and quantity of water. The El Niño effect, the phenomena that warms waters in the Pacific Ocean, is real. The oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system is having important consequences for weather around the world. Consequently, Jamaica has experienced changes in weather conditions and drier, warmer temperatures. Low rainfall and drought conditions have curtailed water availability for almost a decade. This is critical for Jamaica, which is heavily rainfall dependent due to lack of proper water storage infrastructure. In the Kingston and St. Andrew parishes, for example, scheduled water lock offs in recent months have curtailed domestic activities in residential homes, businesses and educational institutions. This negatively impacted the 94.2 percent of the population in those parishes who rely on pipe or tap water for consumption, domestic chores and their livelihoods. As water levels got critically low at Jamaica’s Mona Reservoir, the National Water Commission imposed stiffer restrictions, providing water every two days to its St. Andrew customers and for merely a few hours on the serviceable days.

Read the full story at www.blog.chron.com

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