Leslie Mclean, Gleaner WriterAN AUDIT of standpipes conducted by the St. Ann Parish Council in July has revealed that 62 out of 100 standpipes installed by the National Water Commission (NWC) in the parish do not exist.
This recent revelation has triggered fears by parish council authorities that the glaring inefficiencies of the regulatory authority may have led to 'overbilling' to the tune of millions of dollars.
"The NWC seems like it just goes ahead and looks at old pipes in existence and bills us for them, not taking into consideration what is out of service. They did not do their homework properly and we are concerned about this development," Mayor of St. Ann's Bay, Delroy Giscombe, told The Gleaner yesterday.
Secretary/manager of the council, Dorothy Delgado, explained that the situation was being addressed.
"The Ministry (of Local Government) is now asking for a joint inspection of the standpipes that are at issue and the NWC and the parish council are expected to go together to these locations so that we can see the same thing and come to some sort of resolution," she said.
During the monthly meeting of the parish council last week, Mrs. Delgado reported that of the 100 standpipes, 36 were active, two were inactive and 62 were non-existent. She also noted that the information was sent to the Ministry of Local Government, but only last week, a stack of bills was received from the Ministry of Water and Housing.
The standpipe issue has become a major bone of contention with the NWC leading a campaign in June to disconnect standpipes all over the country for the non-payment of bills. The campaign was discontinued after howls of protest from the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party and other quarters.
However, the revenue collection issue still dogs the water utility. According to figures released from the Ministry of Water, $947 million is owed to the NWC islandwide by delinquent customers, and this figure does not include the parish councils.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Water, Harry Douglas, believes that more dialogue is needed to resolve the matter.
"We need the NWC and the parish council to have greater dialogue, there may be incidents of overbilling, so we need to sit down and work on this problem and I am willing to work on this issue," he said.
