NAWASA toughening up on delinquent consumers

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Details: Parent Category: Nov 2011; Category: Week ending Nov 19th, 2011; Published on Sunday, 20 November 2011 00:57; Hits: 779

The state-owned National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA) is encouraging its customers to be compliant in servicing their accounts.

The status of the Authority’s financial situation was brought to the attention of the media during a press briefing held at the Flamboyant Hotel in Grand Anse, St. George’s.

NAWASA’s General Manager Christopher Husbands disclosed that the utility continues to grapple with receivables from its consumers which he said, if collected, would allow the Authority to undergo the capital investments.

Husbands disclosed that last year the company was forced to take court action against 537 accounts that were disconnected, which resulted in the state body being able to recover $1.5 million.

In recent times, NAWASA has resorted to publishing on a weekly basis the areas for disconnection.

However, Husbands said the company is not getting the response from consumers to service their accounts, as they would have liked to see happening.

He said the Authority does not really want to disconnect consumers because this is not in the consumers interest, neither that of the utility.

“The greater level of compliance we get, the more efficient we can be,” he stated.

“Without collecting our money, without showing the level of financial management that we can attract capital, we cannot do the kind of capital programmes that we need to really make changes in the system,” he added.

Husbands appealed to the general public to service their water bills in order to allow NAWASA to raise capital for its investment projects.

He said the company is now trying to get persons to understand that they should not pay for water when they feel like.

“You don’t pay all the other bills and then if you have a little extra you just come and drop it to NAWASA,” he remarked.

Another problem NAWASA is facing is that of persons tampering with its system.

According to Husbands, NAWASA has stepped up its efforts in trying to curb the unaccounted for water that is used by some persons in the country.

Husbands said there is a notion that water is free but in many instances people do not understand the cost involved in treating and distributing the water.

Although the Authority has so far collected $23.1 million in revenues for the year while its expenses have been put at $19 million, plus a long-term debt of $5 million which has to be serviced.

Husbands said another significant issue that is often overlooked is the cost of repairing roads due to damage pipes and last year alone some $1.5 million was spent in this area.

NAWASA produces an average of seven million gallons of water daily in the rainy season, but this can drop to four million gallons in the dry season.

The NAWASA General Manager recognised that the Authority needs to improve on the level of its service in the areas of quantity, quality and reliability.

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Terrence Smith who also addressed the media said the Authority would like to be the country’s premiere water utility, and to serve all of its customers with respect to water supply and sewerage.