~If it weren’t for the Clarendon Municipal Corporation's network of standpipes, entombed springs, wayside and catchment tanks and several hundreds of kilometres of pipelines, many rural communities would not have access to potable water.
It is for this reason the Corporation regards Minor Water as a valuable institution.
The Clarendon Municipal Corporation's minor water system takes on added significance during the dry season, which generally runs from November to April each year. In 2013 the system came under immense pressure due to unusually severe drought conditions. The current dry season is even more challenging with several areas that aren’t traditionally drought-prone calling on the Municipal Corporation for relief.
Though these communities are served by the National Water Commission, the Corporation considered it, its social responsibility to provide them with water where it could. It is for this reason the Corporation is ever striving toward a greater level of collaboration with the NWC where our water supply obligation intersects.
The Corporation recognises that there is never enough money to serve all communities, but we make do with what we have. Some three million dollars were required to keep operations going in the October-December 2013 quarter with the Rural Water Supply Limited committing 1.95 million dollars for the January-March 2014 quarter. The then Ministry of Land, Environment and Climate Change has lent great support to the Corporation's domestic water trucking activities during the current extraordinary period of drought.
In January, the CEO Rowhan Blake, signed off on a monthly budget of $300, 000 for the trucking of water to drought-affected communities based on a predetermined schedule.
While revenue-generation is not the primary purpose of its minor water supply operations, the Municipal Corporation expects customers whose homes are connected directly to its supply to pay the concessionary monthly rate of $300. We recognise our beneficiaries in Grantham as our most compliant customers. Beneficiaries generally help to maintain the minor water system infrastructure by effecting repairs from time to time or even cleaning the springs.
To allow for equal access to the Municipal Corporation’s minor water supply system, particularly during the dry season, the Corporation recommends the following:
1) A pipe no larger than an 1/2 inch be connected to the main for domestic use
2) Persons should not tap into the main supply without the Corporation's authorisation
3) All users should apply directly to the Corporation to get on to the system
During this period of severe drought the Corporation is urging all our citizens to use water sparingly and wisely for domestic and industrial purposes.