Above: the first batch of pipe

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Workers have begun laying pipe on the Portmore Pipeline Project, a plan to improve the delivery of potable water to communities in the eastern portion of Jamaica’s St Catherine.

The project, which is being executed by civil engineering firm Ashtrom Building Systems Limited, is slated to take 15 months to complete. Contracts were first signed in September 2011.

It is part of the $87 million Kingston Metropolitan Area Water Supply Improvement Project, which is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and Jamaica’s government.

It is intended to improve the supply of water to Greater Spanish Town and Portmore, which form the KMA Region along with Kingston and St Andrew.

The project will mean the installation of 10 kilometres of transmission main from the Rio Cobre pipeline in Caymanas to the Marley Hill Reservoir at Braeton.

“These works are expected to facilitate the increase in the existing supplies to Portmore by three million gallons per day, and allow for more effective flows through the distribution network,” said Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill. “These much-needed improvements in water supply provision will certainly improve service reliability and service quality to the customers of the National Water Commission.”