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JAMAICA GLEANER
published: Thursday | August 23, 2007
Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter
Following the completion of damage assessments on Tuesday, the Jamaica Public Service Co. Ltd. (JPS) yesterday said its initial hope of restoring electricity supply to a majority of its customers by the weekend has been somewhat hampered.
According to the JPS in a release yesterday, it is at present facing significant challenges due to severe damage to its power delivery system caused by Hurricane Dean, particularly in eastern and southern parishes.
Winsome Callum, JPS head of corporate communications, told The Gleaner that, as of 11:00 a.m. yesterday, the company had restored power to just 20 per cent (135,000) of its 560,000 customers across the island.
"These customers are primarily in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew, St. James, Trelawny, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St. Ann," said Ms. Callum in a written response.
The JPS said, while restoration efforts were proceeding as expected in other parishes, the process was much slower in the parishes of St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas and Portland.
This, the JPS said, was attributed to the fact that damage to its transmission system in those areas was far greater than the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Ms. Callum said it could take "some weeks before the electricity is fully restored to customers in areas where the power system is badly affected".
Meanwhile, the National Water Commission (NWC) said approximately 50 per cent of its customers, since yesterday, had received water. The water supplier said it was, however, facing challenges in the areas of Portmore and Greater Mandeville because of the absence of electricity.
Working to truck water
Charles Buchanan, corporate public relations manager at the NWC, said the company has been working to truck water into these areas but said it was difficult to supply the entire community at once, considering their size.
"We are trucking water into these areas but the trucks are really just a drop in the bucket, considering the extremely large size of the Portmore area," he told The Gleaner.
Mr. Buchanan said the NWC has dispatched teams, which are working in unison with employees from the JPS, to restore power and water supply in the less affected areas of Portmore. "This will then allow us to concentrate the trucks in those areas that are without water supply."
Mr. Buchanan said one of the major challenges of getting water back into areas such as Portmore and Mandeville is the great distance of the water sources that serve these communities. He said the Portmore area was supplied by sources in Bog Walk and the Greater Mandeville area by sources in the adjoining parishes of Clarendon and St. Elizabeth.
athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com
published: Thursday | August 23, 2007
Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter
Following the completion of damage assessments on Tuesday, the Jamaica Public Service Co. Ltd. (JPS) yesterday said its initial hope of restoring electricity supply to a majority of its customers by the weekend has been somewhat hampered.
According to the JPS in a release yesterday, it is at present facing significant challenges due to severe damage to its power delivery system caused by Hurricane Dean, particularly in eastern and southern parishes.
Winsome Callum, JPS head of corporate communications, told The Gleaner that, as of 11:00 a.m. yesterday, the company had restored power to just 20 per cent (135,000) of its 560,000 customers across the island.
"These customers are primarily in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew, St. James, Trelawny, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St. Ann," said Ms. Callum in a written response.
The JPS said, while restoration efforts were proceeding as expected in other parishes, the process was much slower in the parishes of St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas and Portland.
This, the JPS said, was attributed to the fact that damage to its transmission system in those areas was far greater than the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Ms. Callum said it could take "some weeks before the electricity is fully restored to customers in areas where the power system is badly affected".
Meanwhile, the National Water Commission (NWC) said approximately 50 per cent of its customers, since yesterday, had received water. The water supplier said it was, however, facing challenges in the areas of Portmore and Greater Mandeville because of the absence of electricity.
Working to truck water
Charles Buchanan, corporate public relations manager at the NWC, said the company has been working to truck water into these areas but said it was difficult to supply the entire community at once, considering their size.
"We are trucking water into these areas but the trucks are really just a drop in the bucket, considering the extremely large size of the Portmore area," he told The Gleaner.
Mr. Buchanan said the NWC has dispatched teams, which are working in unison with employees from the JPS, to restore power and water supply in the less affected areas of Portmore. "This will then allow us to concentrate the trucks in those areas that are without water supply."
Mr. Buchanan said one of the major challenges of getting water back into areas such as Portmore and Mandeville is the great distance of the water sources that serve these communities. He said the Portmore area was supplied by sources in Bog Walk and the Greater Mandeville area by sources in the adjoining parishes of Clarendon and St. Elizabeth.
athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com