NWC targets Portmore
THE NATIONAL Water Commission (NWC) recently took its reconnection/disconnection drive to the Half Moon Bay Fishing Beach in Hellshire, St Catherine, and within two hours, had disconnected 10 illegal connections to its water mains.
Community relations manager for the NWC’s Eastern Division, Delano Williams, said the initiative also included repairing and upgrading its pipeline network in light of the growing demand on its services at that location. This is in keeping with the national drive to reduce its overall non-revenue water (NRW) loss to an acceptable global standard of about 30 per cent.
“Over the years , at this particular location, we’ve had a meter-banking situation which has needed some repairs and upgrading as the community, which is largely a business community has started to grow beyond the extent of the existing pipeline network. So our initial thrust is to look at the existing meter banks, upgrade them where necessary, repair the pipelines that are leaking and also, which is most critical, to engage the customers who have either become delinquent or persons who have tapped into the NWC lines illegally.
“Today, we are removing a number of the illegal connections that our checks have identified. Some of them have tapped into the service mains inside the meter banks themselves. So far we have identified 10 and our work will continue, along the network to correct any of those situations that we come across,” Williams told The Gleaner.
A meter bank, he explained, is a repository of water meters in one location, where several meters are installed and service connections run from the meters to individual properties.
The NWC was also on a mission to activate customers with large balances and inactive ones, those who had been disconnected for non-payment.
“We are also using this opportunity to engage those persons, with a view to having them come and settle their accounts,” Williams added.
AROUND $8.5M IN OUTSTANDING BALANCES
With outstanding overall balances running at around $8.5 million between active and inactive customers at the Half Moon Bay Fishing Village, the NWC executive made it clear that they were on a mission to collect but were not taking a hardline stance, preferring to collect than disconnect.
“In terms of the overall outstanding balances, we are looking at approximately $8.5 million and that includes active and inactive customers. We have about 32 active customers with a balance of $1.5 million and the larger balance in terms of outstanding balances.
“So, we are actually disconnecting a number of the accounts, but we have never taken a harsh approach since we started this engagement some weeks ago. We served notices and also sent another set of notices even today. Where persons indicate a willingness to comply and to formalise their accounts, we have a customer service team on-hand guiding them through that process of settling or registering for their accounts.”
The NWC is in the final stages of its NRW reduction programme in Kingston that has been running for at least the past four years, through which it has been seeking to cut the volume of water lost through theft or leaks. The programme, now it is first six months in Portmore, targets a number of communities for upgrading works, which will replace pipe mains as well as meters, where these are found to be defective.
Passage Fort is one of these communities in which the NWC will be actively seeking to engage its costumer base through various stakeholders, including members of parliament and citizens’ associations. The programme, which targets between eight to 10 communities for an expansion in distribution pipelines to improve water supply, is part of the NWC’s ongoing improvement drive.
In keeping with that mandate, the reduction in NRW, which Williams defined as water being treated and distributed through the NWC’s pipeline network but for which it is collecting nothing, is high on its agenda.
“We are somewhat above the ideal world standard of about 30 per cent and so we are working to bring it down. Our work in Kingston saw that moving from approximately 60 per cent to somewhere in the 40s and we are aiming to bring that kind of reduction across to Portmore and hopefully with funding and support, we may be able to extend it across the entire island.”