Commitment Made, Commitment Kept – Ground Broken for Phase 1 of US$425 Million Western Resilience Water Project
Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, broke ground today (July 4, 2025) for the launch and commencement of Phase One of the highly-anticipated Western Resilience Water Project.
The biggest and most impactful water project to serve western Jamaica, the Western Resilience Water Project is valued at US$425 million or J$67.5 billion.
Phase one of the Project, valued at over US$176 million or approximately J$28 billion, will involve the upgrading of transmission mains and pipeline improvement works, aimed at addressing the water supply deficiencies in the northwestern part of the island.
Speaking at the launch and groundbreaking event at Davis Pen in Trelawny, the Prime Minister told residents that the Government has made billions of dollars in investments to ensure that communities that previously were without water, now have the commodity.
“The Government is now active with US$425 million of investment or J$67.5 billion of investment in the water supply for the western end of the island, that is going to (1) ensure that you have reliable water supply; (2) ensure that the water supply is expanded to those who now don’t have it and (3) to ensure that in the event of shocks, whether they be weather shocks or other kinds of shocks, that you will have water. That is not a promise. That is a commitment that is active and strongly made”, he stated.
The region is currently supplied by five primary water treatment plants – Roaring River, Logwood, Great River, Martha Brae, and Bogue and is supported by a limited network of smaller facilities. These systems are interconnected by major transmission mains. However, they suffer from aging infrastructure and reduced capacity.
In his address Minister without Portfolio, Hon. Matthew Samuda, said the project would address these issues as well as that of leaking pipes along the corridor.
“We will no longer be pumping water into the ground from leaking pipes going into Montego Bay. There will be less pressure on Great River to pump easterly. But we also acknowledge that the pipelines going into the West End of Negril all the way from Great River are also old”…”We will also be changing the transmission mains fully and totally from Lucea to the West End of Negril. There will be repairs and some replacements from the Great River Treatment Plant itself into Lucea”, he stated.
Minister Samuda said in all, some 68 kilometers of ductile iron pipes would be laid, adding, “that is just Phase One of a true transformation of the water distribution, production and total systems of the north coast”.
Areas to be served include major towns and cities along the tourism corridor including Savanna-la-Mar, Negril, Montego Bay, Falmouth, Runaway Bay, St Ann’s Bay, and Ocho Rios, in addition to several smaller townships
Phase 2, he noted, will see significant increases in capacity and improvements in the quality of water production with the construction of 2 new water treatment plants. These, he further noted, will be done through Public Private Partnerships at Rio Bueno and Roaring River in Westmoreland, effectively adding to the water treatment capacity.
Two existing water treatment plants, the Martha Brae System and the Great River System, would also be significantly improved to yield an additional 10 million gallons daily.
The Project which will be done in 4 phases will also include the upgrading of the Transmission Main in Westmoreland; as well as the construction of the New Rio Bueno Water Treatment Plant and the installation of the transmission main from Runaway Bay to Ocho Rios in St. Ann.