Kingston and St Andrew: why the water locks off

On 2 November 2026 Mona Reservoir held 351 of 808.5 MG, or 43.4%, and Hermitage Dam held 224.1 of 393.5 MG, or 57%. The National Water Commission (NWC) names these two as main sources for Kingston and St Andrew.

These numbers are old the moment you read them. NWC updates its reservoir page weekly, so bookmark that instead of relying on us.

NWC warns lock-off schedules may follow falling levels. Watching the percentage drop gives you some days' warning to fill your tank.

Go to NWC's advisories page, which sets out current and planned disruptions by parish. We print no schedule here, since a copied timetable would be wrong within days and could leave you with an empty tank.

Tell the page apart from street talk. A neighbour's word is often right about your block, but a planned works notice tells you the reason and may give a time.

Once a notice lands, our lock-off steps cover what to do in the first hour. Keep the taps closed, since an open one floods the house when supply returns while you are out.

Kingston and St Andrew are both on the list in this year's Prohibition Notices, the Gleaner reported on 11 August 2026, in force until further notice, with enforcement from 17 August. Garden and lawn watering, filling pools and hosing vehicles or paved areas are out. Ordinary household use is spared.

By mid-October the paper was reporting that the limits still stood, and that privately sourced water "may not fall within" the order. We found no later easing, so check NWC.

An earlier notice, from May 2023, warned of a fine on summary conviction and, if unpaid, up to 30 days' imprisonment. Check what this year's says before you risk it.

Partly by design. NWC's non-revenue water programme with Miya, a J$5 billion scheme for 2015 to 2020, split the network into managed pressure zones. Its aim was to halve the 60% of Kingston and St Andrew's water that earned nothing.

As at April 2021 NWC counted 146 pressure zones, 13,122 new meters and 1,700 km of pipeline better managed. NWC's own reasoning is that high pressure harms pipes and low pressure annoys the people on them.

We could not extract NWC's results table, so we cannot tell you where the losses stand now. If your whole house is weak, start with low pressure. Your zone may be only part of the story.

Gravity works against you. Water pressure falls with height, so when a main is low or just coming back on, houses higher up often see it last and lose it first.

We have no community-by-community figures and will not guess at which hillsides fare worst. The usual answer is storage, with a tank plus pump and pressure tank so that you draw from your own supply. Remember the pump pulls from the tank, not the street.

Building on a slope? Ask KSAMC about your drainage early, since a pit or tile field on steep ground raises its own questions.

One is named. NWC says the Rio Cobre Water Treatment Plant, under construction, "will improve water supply to sections of St. Catherine and parts of Kingston". The pages we read give no opening date and no list of which parts of Kingston, so do not plan your tank around it.

Wells remain the island's backbone, at more than 60% of what NWC supplies daily, so a drought is not only a dam story. In heavy rain, muddy rivers and blocked intakes can hit smaller surface systems too.

The St Catherine side of that same plant is on our Portmore page.

The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) takes the application, with about four weeks quoted for a single-family house. The Environmental Health Unit is its critical referral agency for sewage.

One thing is special to this area. By law, NWC's power to approve water and sewerage plans stops at these two parishes; elsewhere it merely recommends. So NWC's view carries more weight here. Its target for developments is 28 days.

If your drains go to a sewer main, KSAMC wants a letter from NWC. The full drawing list is in building approval.

Your bill is the quick check, because a sewerage charge should appear on it. NWC's wastewater list names Soapberry and parts of the Corporate Area, but we found no street list, so you cannot tell from the outside.

Being close matters too. NWC can levy sewerage charges on premises up to 100 yards (91.4 metres) from a sewer, hooked up or not, and it may require connection. Our septic approval stack explains what follows. Old pits still hold gas after connection: nobody goes in.

NWC's rule is also blunt on rain: storm water should not flow into its sewers.

Most troubles here land on one of five desks.

We name offices and link their pages only, since phone lines change.