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The Meteorological Service of Jamaica (MSJ) says the dry spell currently affecting the island are expected to continue for some time, even as the government announces a $350 million allocation to cushion the impact islandwide.

Evan Thompson, Principal Director of the MSJ, made the announcement during a special press briefing held earlier today.

Thompson said that in January, noticeable dryness was observed across all parishes when compared to a 30-year normal.

Seven parishes were recorded as experiencing drought conditions during the December to January period.

"In March, we see a little more of the greens coming in the western part of the island... but there is still quite a bit of brown areas showing the dry conditions in the east-central parts of the country," Thompson explained.

There was an increase in rainfall during April, but Thompson noted that a lot more dryness is expected going into next week.

"We are expecting the browns to continue, with dryness affecting sections of the island throughout much of July and even into August," he added.

Matthew Samuda, Minister with responsibility for Water, announced a suite of drought mitigation measures amounting to $350 million.

"Those measures will include $250 million dollars which will be executed by the ministry of economic growth and job creation which will see trucking that will be directed through members of parliament to the tune of approximately $150 million dollars," Samuda said.

An additional $50 million will be used to support trucking by the NWC to critical infrastructure, and another $50 million will go towards water tank purchases.

"We are in a full-on drought," Samuda stated.

He added that the Ministry of Agriculture will carry out further drought mitigation efforts, valued at $100 million, to assist farmers.

"That will be shared between water, trucking, drip irrigation systems and grass purchases," Samuda said, noting Agriculture Minister Floyd Green would speak further to it later this week.

Peter Clarke, Managing Director at the Water Resources Authority (WRA) said with regards to the water situation and resources the agency must make it clear that the ground water which is sourced from wells responds the slowest to lack of rain and dry conditions.

"We can be pretty much assured that our systems which are served by wells will continue to produce the amount of water that is required. However our rivers, springs and streams those are more dependent on rainfall, they are what we call rain fed. So what it means is that those will respond a little bit quicker to dry conditions," Clark said.

Garth Jackson, Acting President of the National Water Commission (NWC), said the dry season has already impacted several of the agency's systems.

"We have about 450 systems operating islandwide and about 44 of them have been affected in some way by the dry season. Twenty Three of those are operating below 50 per cent capacity but the rest of them are above that," Jackson said.

He said that eastern parishes are more severely affected, with 40 systems impacted, compared to only three systems in the west.

Herritage dam, currently at 62.7 per cent is below the caution level of 65 per cent.

With respect to Mona reservoir is currently at 50 per cent with a caution level of 65 per cent.

The NWC says restrictions and contingency measures will be implemented in response to the worsening conditions.

- Andre Williams

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