HUNDREDS OF delinquent National Water Commission (NWC) customers may lose their water supply before the end of this year, unless they pay up millions owed in outstanding water bills.
The Commission says that non-paying customers have been threatened with disconnections as the company, which provides sewerage services and distributes nearly 200 million gallons of water daily, intensifies its efforts to ensure that all consumers who are supplied with water pay for the commodity.
Customers in arrears have been urged to clear their arrears immediately, as a concentrated effort will be placed on collection activities, including disconnecting delinquent customers over the next several weeks.
NWC's corporate public relations manager, Charles Buchanan, told The Gleaner yesterday that more than 10 persons were disconnected in De La Vega City, St. Catherine on Tuesday, a drive that netted in excess of $100,000 in the space of a day from customers who rushed to honour outstanding bills. De La Vega City is one of the areas with a high rate of delinquency. The community owes the NWC $4.8 million.
The NWC offered an amnesty in 2000 and 2001 to delinquent customers aimed at collecting between $3 billion and $5 billion in arrears, however, that action failed to generate the expected response. The amnesty offered customers a chance to settle outstanding balances without being penalised. It followed the 1999 amnesty during which delinquents benefited from a 50 per cent discount on outstanding arrears. More than $50 million was raised in that amnesty which saw more than 2,000 new customers being connected. But, according to the NWC, thousands of residential and commercial customers continue to use water for which they do not pay.
In January this year, the utility company said it was acting on instructions from former Water Minister Dr. Karl Blythe in using the courts to try and collect more than $1 billion monthly from thousands of delinquent clients.
Several quasi public sector entities were among the delinquents, but the company said that, in the case of hospitals and schools, its policy is not to disconnect even if there is delinquency, but to work with the clients to clear arrears.
Mr. Buchanan confirmed earlier this year that at least 3,000 cases were taken before the courts in different parishes, with the Corporate Area and St. Catherine accounting for most of the delinquent accounts. He said the Commission was trying to collect on average between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion per month from delinquent accounts then.
He said that disconnection of water supplies occurred among all the island's socio-economic groups.
Of the three utilities, the NWC is the only one that does not require customers to make a deposit to have their services restored after it has been disconnected for arrears. However, a fee is charged for reconnection. This costs residential customers $930, but if the pipes are three-quarters of an inch in size, the fee is doubled to $1,860, and tripled to $2,790 where the disconnection/reconnection applies to a commercial entity.
The move in De La Vega City forms a part of a series of strategies adopted by NWC to encourage customers to pay their bills. NWC will be moving to other areas of St. Catherine and across the island to disconnect.
Mr. Buchanan said that most bills are less than $500 per month, and some customers opt to pay for other less essential services where bills sometimes double the amount.
The intensified campaign started last month-end and "will be ongoing for the maximum effect." It adds to a massive media campaign to reinforce the need for proper water management usage, as well as to encourage delinquents to make arrangements for payment to NWC before disconnection.
"It will always be a challenge to collect, we will from time to time redouble our efforts," Mr. Buchanan said.
According to NWC President, E.G. Hunter, the NWC provides water and sewerage services at a tremendous cost, yet far too many consumers do not pay their water bills and some go to great lengths to illegally connect to the network.
"Routine maintenance and operations, as well as needed improvement works can only be undertaken when customers pay for the service they receive. It is just not fair for some to pay and others to refuse to pay their part, the NWC cannot allow this to continue," Mr. Hunter said.
