NWC’s Regional Manager Urges Customers To Pay Their Water Bills

Regional Manager at the National Water Commission (NWC), Jeffery Smith, is urging customers to help the entity to achieve its mission of providing high quality potable water and sewerage services to residents and businesses, by paying their water bills in full and on time.

Smith was delivering the keynote message at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Savannah la Mar as part of the club’s commemoration of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene month in March.

Citing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, as a very important undertaking, Smith also explained that it is also a very costly responsibility.

“Water and sanitation management is heavily infrastructural and therefore it needs significant amounts of monies to ensure access to majority of the population. Although committed to the task, this is a constant struggle for the NWC as it is our revenues that support our operations. We do not receive direct funding from the Government and we are currently dealing with chronic delinquencies of amounts in the billions.”

Smith assured that the NWC continues to do its best to enforce a working partnership with its clients by encouraging users of the services to pay their bills in full and on time and states that the company has offered incentives through initiatives such as Early Payment fees, Welcome Back programme and even amnesties (including recently the COVID assistance program, CAP) over the years.

“Currently, we are on a massive disconnection drive across the parishes and we do not take pleasure in disconnecting customers but in this partnership, people must live up to their responsibilities. The workings of the water management business is a cycle and all of us have important roles to play. We can’t do our part without you doing your part and vice versa.”

The manager also took the opportunity to inform on a number of ongoing and upcoming projects for the region. These include:

• Dunbar’s Corner to Manning Pipeline Upgrade – which will contribute to improved pressures in the Town of Savannah La Mar and environs
• Nonpareil to Whitehall/Retirement Water Supply Installations – which is expected to add about 600 new connections in Westmoreland
• Upgraded wastewater treatment plant for Negril Spot to accommodate a number of housing developments that are to be done by National Housing Trust (NHT) and other developers.
• Roaring River to Negril Water Supply Extension – which will aid in mitigating drought conditions and improving supplies for customers in Little London, Albany and Broughton etc.
• Customer Census Mapping project – a door to door survey aimed at improving service delivery and responsiveness.