KINGSTON, Jamaica – Officials of the U.S. Embassy’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding extending the US-Japan Clean Water for the People Initiative to Jamaica.
National Water Commission (NWC) President Everton G. Hunter witnessed the signing as the Jamaican counterpart for the Initiative.
Jamaica is one of only four countries assisted under the Clean Water for the People Initiative. The others are India, Indonesia and Philippines. The signing ceremony took place at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston.
According to Mr. Hajime Takeuchi, a Director with JBIC, “the USAID education and public awareness program complements JBIC’s investment by addressing the most critical water quality issue affecting the operation of the Spanish Town Water Treatment Plant – turbidity in the Rio Cobre River – caused by soil erosion and siltation.”
Ms. Patricia Chaplin, signing on behalf of USAID, noted that “Although Jamaica is blessed with abundant rainfall and many rivers, the water supply to National Water Commission’s treatment plants is adversely affected by runoff from agriculture, land clearing for road and building construction and storm water drainage in the urban areas.” She went on to explain, “that as Jamaicans pursue economic opportunities, there is an unprecedented rural-urban drift resulting in densely populated urban communities that places a great deal of pressure on the country’s water supply infrastructure.”
Mr. Everton Hunter of the NWC noted that the assistance from JBIC and USAID is particularly timely as today marks the beginning of the hurricane season. This period usually results in significant stress on water treatment plants; particularly the plant that treats water from the Rio Cobre River. Soil erosion exacerbated by human activities is a common problem of the Rio Cobre Watershed.
In September 2002, the United States and Japan launched the Clean Water for People Initiative at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. The Initiative supports a joint statement made earlier by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirming the U.S.-Japan Partnership for Security and Prosperity.
The Clean Water for People Initiative was created to provide safe water and sanitation to the world’s poor. This Initiative expands and accelerates international efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals, including the goal to halve the proportion of the people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
JBIC support to NWC has come in the form of a loan to rehabilitate and expand the Spanish Town Water Treatment Plant serving the Kingston Metropolitan Area. USAID, through its Rural Enterprise, Agriculture and Community project, is supporting NWC’s efforts to educate the public, particularly in rural areas, on land management practices that will improve water quality in the Rio Cobre Watershed, the main source of water for the Greater Spanish Town Area and South East St. Catherine.
