ST ANN, Jamaica – After years of widespread water access challenges for households across Stepney and neighboring communities in St Ann parish, a transformative new rainwater catchment and treatment infrastructure project has officially moved forward, following a groundbreaking ceremony hosted Thursday by Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change.
Funded at a total cost of $140 million and scheduled to kick off construction on June 1, the initiative will be executed by Rural Water Supply Limited (RWSL), with the explicit goal of delivering consistent, regulated potable water supplies to more than 1,100 local residents who have long lived with debilitating water scarcity.
At the ceremony, Samuda framed the public investment as far more than a standard infrastructure upgrade, positioning it as a targeted anti-poverty intervention that addresses hidden financial burdens carried by working-class households. “Every dollar residents pay for trucked water is money pulled away from investing in their children’s education, or diverted from other critical household needs that keep communities afloat,” he explained. “Every investment like this one in Stepney is an investment in cutting poverty and empowering local communities. We are making this investment to lift the heavy weight that local people have carried for far too long.”
The 28-week construction timeline will deliver a fully integrated, modern water harvesting and purification system tailored to the region’s climate conditions. Core project elements include an 180,000-gallon reinforced concrete catchment tank, paired with a purpose-built surface collection area designed to capture large volumes of rain runoff. The development also adds a state-of-the-art chlorination treatment system, a purpose-built water management facility, and new localized distribution stands to formalize and regularize water access across all participating communities.
Zavia Mayne, Member of Parliament for St Ann South Western and State Minister in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, welcomed the long-awaited investment, noting it represents the end of a years-long advocacy and planning process to ease the daily struggles of his constituents. “If you talk to any resident here, they will tell you straight that the water crisis is one of the worst problems they face. Access to clean water has been their top priority for years, and today we can tell them we are nearly across the finish line,” Mayne said. “We have secured the full funding, selected a qualified contractor, and we are ready to get to work to make daily life easier for every person in this community.”
Samuda also placed the Stepney project within the context of Jamaica’s broader national climate resilience and recovery agenda, which gained new structure following the recent passage of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Act. He noted that Jamaica faces a range of climate-driven hazards, with forecasters predicting an extended period of extreme heat and dry conditions across the country over the coming three months. Building national resilience against unpredictable, intensifying climate volatility, he emphasized, requires investments across multiple sectors that address community needs at the local level.
For Stepney and the wider parish of St Ann, the start of construction on the new water system marks the beginning of a new era, one that promises structural water security, new local employment opportunities during construction, and stronger climate resilience for generations to come.