PSOJ urges water planning overhaul as drought threatens economy

Worsening drought conditions have prompted the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) to call for an urgent “national reset” in the country’s water planning.

The business group’s call comes as a prolonged dry spell threatens households, agriculture, and commerce, and follows a government alert that tighter water restrictions may soon be required for residents in Kingston and St Andrew.

The main catchment facilities in the Corporate Area, the Mona Reservoir and the Hermitage are currently below 50 percent of capacity.

It acknowledged that the Government “is not standing still”, with major investments, including the US$92-million Rio Cobre Water Treatment Plant upgrade and the Western Parishes Water Supply and Resilience Improvement Programme under way as well as plans to examine the expansion of the Hermitage Dam and Mona Reservoir, replace the Yallahs pipeline and upgrade Kingston’s potable water distribution infrastructure.

But, the group said, “the question Jamaica must now answer, however, is whether the combined scale, financing and delivery timelines of these investments are sufficient to meet the country’s future water needs, or whether we are still managing each drought as a crisis while the underlying supply and resilience gap remains”.

The private sector leaders pointed to the long-standing nature of the problem noting that the current situation is not an isolated event as Jamaica has repeatedly experienced water restrictions and drought-related supply pressures over the past two decades.

“In 2026, the country is once again confronting widespread drought impacts, with more than 100 NWC systems affected. The pattern is therefore difficult to describe as an unforeseen emergency. Jamaica has been warned, restricted, trucked and asked to conserve repeatedly. The issue is no longer simply how we survive the current dry spell. The issue is what infrastructure, financing and policy framework we put in place so that the next drought does not produce the same economic disruption.”

The PSOJ declared that the country must “draw the line now” arguing that “resilience by individual Jamaicans cannot indefinitely substitute for resilient national infrastructure.”

It noted that its contention is not that Government can prevent drought but that Jamaica can, and must, prevent predictable drought from repeatedly becoming an economic and social crisis.

“Water security is as fundamental to national competitiveness as electricity, roads, ports and telecommunications. If we are serious about higher economic growth, food security, manufacturing, tourism expansion, housing development and improving the quality of life of Jamaicans, reliable water cannot remain an aspiration. It is economic infrastructure. Water must become part of development planning,” said the PSOJ.