Hundreds of residents of Port Royal in eastern Kingston are now at their wits end as, having lost their electricity supply since Tuesday when underground cables serving the area were damaged by contractors working on behalf of the Airports Authority of Jamaica [AAJ], they have now lost their water supply.

The disgruntled residents, many of whom operate small businesses including bars, restaurants and grocery shops in the largely fishing village, are now fuming, having now been left without the two vital commodities.

Some business owners are now counting their losses as they have been forced to dump items including hundreds of pounds of fish, that need refrigeration.

The residents were promised that their power supply would have been restored on Friday but that did not materialise, with the Jamaica Public Service Company [JPS] indicating that the delay was caused after engineers encountered some unexpected challenges while carrying out civil works Friday evening.

The team said it expected that full replacement of the damaged underground electrical cables will be completed on Saturday afternoon.

The JPS cables were damaged beyond repair on Tuesday by contractors working on behalf of the AAJ. JPS said the damage means it will have to replace about one kilometre of cables that provide electricity to more than 400 residential and business customers in Port Royal and surrounding areas.