Portmore and St Catherine: what we know about your water

The National Water Commission (NWC) has one named explanation for Portmore: manganese from Government Park Wells. It says this "is not a health threat" but is "a serious nuisance".

That covers the known problem, not every dark glass. NWC's general line on dirty-looking water is that running the tap normally sorts it, and that you should tell them when it does not. Give the date, the time and how long it took to clear.

After a storm the advice is stricter. A Westmoreland health officer told JIS to avoid discoloured or turbid NWC water until it is safe, and our storm drinking water stack has the treatment steps.

First, keep it out of the wash. Run a tap into a bucket and look before you start a load of whites, because manganese marks fabric and fixtures.

If it keeps coming back, get a water test before buying any treatment. You want the manganese and iron figures, ideally from a sample taken on a bad day. A carbon filter alone may not deal with it, and a filter that is the wrong type just wastes money.

We have no Jamaican figure for how often Portmore gets blackwater or which communities see it most. Your own dated notes, and your neighbours', are useful evidence when you complain to NWC. For kits, see testing your tap.

We can name only part of it. Government Park Wells is the one source NWC names for Portmore, and it says wells nationally make up more than 60% of its daily supply. We found no full system list for Portmore or St Catherine.

Two more gaps. We looked for detail on Tulloch and the NIC minor systems and found nothing we can rely on. NWC also notes that private entities licensed by the Office of Utilities Regulation serve some areas and that Parish Councils play a part in supply, but it gave no list.

If your bill does not come from NWC, your supplier is who to ask.

It may help, but we cannot say whose taps. NWC expects the plant now being built at Rio Cobre to lift supply in some St Catherine communities, as well as across into the capital.

Those communities go unnamed, and the pages we read give no finish date. Nor do they say the plant will end blackwater, so nobody should promise you that.

In the meantime, what you can control is storage. Size a tank for your household, and keep NWC's parish notices in your bookmarks, since those are the only schedule we would trust.

It is a documented risk for the underground water, though we have no figure for your tap. The Water Resources Authority's 2022 master plan lists the Rio Cobre management unit among those vulnerable, and says a Lower Rio Cobre study found "a significant impact of saline intrusion". It uses chloride above 250 mg/L as the marker.

That is about aquifers, not what NWC delivers. If water tastes brackish, report it and ask for the reading.

A private well needs its own chloride test: start at wells and springs. Portmore is on the coast, so the air can be working on your outdoor metal too; see salt air.

It did, going by the Gleaner, which on 11 August 2026 reported St Catherine among seven parishes under Prohibition Notices. We read that as taking in Portmore, though the report does not name it. On 14 October the paper said limits were still on.

So no hosing down the car or the driveway, and no filling a pool, until NWC says otherwise. Household use is excepted. If you are using water you bought or drew yourself, the same October report suggests it may fall outside the order, which is not the same as a clear permission.

Rules and what to do in a dry spell are in lock-offs.

Portmore has its own municipal corporation, with a building application page. When we tried it, the page returned no readable text, so we cannot tell you its plan count, timing or plumbing requirements. Go in person and ask for the current list.

Elsewhere in St Catherine, the parish's own corporation handles it; we did not read its pages. NWC says that outside Kingston and St Andrew it only recommends on water and sewerage proposals.

KSAMC's list in building approval is a fair guide to what to prepare, though it is not Portmore's own.

We could not confirm how much of Portmore is sewered. NWC's wastewater page names systems at Negril, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Soapberry and parts of the Corporate Area. Portmore is not in that line, but the absence proves nothing, so do not read it as a no.

Look at your bill: a sewerage charge is a strong clue, although NWC can charge premises within 100 yards of a sewer whether connected or not. Your building plans may also say.

No sewer means a pit or septic tank, with the Environmental Health Unit as your office. Keep covers secure and stay out.