Jamaica has a population of about 2.5 million and, excepting offshore banks and shoals, a land area of 10,991 sq.km. The island is mountainous. Water is arguably the most important natural resource of any country and as populations grow and agriculture and industries develop, the water environment is placed under an ever-increasing stress.

Jamaica depends heavily on ground water resources which are vulnerable to pollution partly because the soils of Jamaica contain unusually high concentrations of a number of potentially hazardous elements, partly because of karstic nature of limestone aquifers, and also because increasing agriculture and industry produce contaminants which may enter the aquifers.

International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences , of the University of the West Indies, is co-operating with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water and Housing in carrying out a programme which will allow the assessment of the vulnerability of Jamaica's ground water to external contaminants. This is a joint project of ICENS and Water Resources Authority . The latter contributed with data that are kept in their databases.

The �project �"Mapping Vulnerability of �Jamaican �Ground �Water" started as a pilot project� with the surface-water basin of the Rio Minho. As a Phase I, a�Ground Water Information System (GWIS) has been established for the basin transferring all data into a dedicated ground water oriented data base. The software used for creating such a�GWIS is the United Nations� Ground Water�for�Windows package�( software, as it is popularly known). All graphics,�except several�maps (identified as ArcView maps), have been created with the GWW software (maps,�cross sections, lithological logs, chemical diagrams, abstraction graphs, hydrographs, step drawdown test graphs, etc.).

Phase II of the pilot project deals with interpretation of the�information contained in the GWIS of the Rio Minho basin�in terms of lithology, ground water quality, stress on aquifer from abstraction, sea water intrusion, and ultimately in terms of aquifer vulnerability to pollution, water quality �deterioration, and resource depletion.

All data contained in the GWIS are also copied as Excel spreadsheet files�and�Word document files and uploaded to an Internet server. The original data come from files and data bases that are kept at the .�

The GWIS-processed �data will be used by WRA to manage ground water resources, plan future developments,�modify the existing monitoring� programme and networks, and better evaluate the resource.

A fully developed and comprehensive GWIS enables hydrogeologists, water resources managers, and all interested parties to better understand problems associated with availability of ground water and vulnerability of aquifers.

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