The commission is also responsible for keeping the Black River navigable and other selected watercourses clear in order to minimise flooding in that area.
The National Irrigation Commission is mandated to maintain the water courses under its control at a standard to ensure that its clients obtain their supplies at an acceptable quality.
The following are the main requirements for the commission to adequately maintain its irrigation systems: Keep watercourses clean and clear or remove from such water courses inclusive of the banks, any vegetation including trees, logs, refuse, soil or any obstacle which may obstruct or impede the natural flow of water and possibly cause flooding of adjacent areas.
Refuse removed from the canals by the commission must be placed on land adjacent to the watercourse but not beyond a distance of one chain measured from the top of the banks thereof.
Irrigation is mainly supplementary and most of the Island’s agricultural lands are cultivated under rain fed conditions.
However, some specific areas with good soils and topographical conditions for intensive agriculture are highly dependent upon irrigation.
According to the Land and Water Atlas of Jamaica produced by the National Irrigation Development Master Plan, rainfall regimes make irrigation a necessity for intensive agriculture in the South/Central Region of the Island (mainly covering some parts of the Parishes of St Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon, St. Catherine, St. Andrew and an isolated part of St. Thomas).
Indeed, it is there, where most of the current irrigation infrastructure of the Island is located and where most of the proposed projects to be developed by the Master Plan were identified.