NWC working to restore water to remaining 30,000 customers from Melissa - Samuda
Published:Monday | February 2, 2026 | 5:24 PM
The National Water Commission (NWC) is working to ensure that the 30,000 customers who remain without water following the disruptions caused by Hurricane Melissa are provided with access to the commodity in the shortest possible time.
“We expect to cut in half that number of persons without water within the next three weeks,” Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, Matthew Samuda, told JIS News.
“So, we are working around the clock to make sure that those numbers are, indeed, shrunk over that period,” he added.
Water has been restored to 95 per cent of customers since the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28.
Samuda noted that within the first few days after the storm, “we were able to get to about 60 per cent, because our major systems do serve the largest populations”.
He noted that the 30,000 who remain without the commodity “are customers in what we classify as the most rural areas, which tend to be in Westmoreland, St Elizabeth and the hills of St James where we are still having particular challenges”.
He said that work is being done to restore systems in southern Trelawny as well.
The Minister commended the NWC teams that have been working nights, weekends and “every single day” since the passage of the storm.
“We also have team members who are victims themselves because they themselves have lost roofs. So, we are very cognisant of the awesome effort that they have been putting in, the focus that they have put on community above themselves, and at the appropriate time we will express our appreciation in the right way,” the Minister said.
The NWC has a mission to contribute positively to national development by providing high-quality, potable water and sewerage services to residents and businesses in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.
- JIS News
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