NWC to sell up to $20b of debt to collection agency

The National Water Commission (NWC) has revealed that it will be packaging and selling between $15 billion and $20 billion of its debt to a collection agency.

During a quarterly press briefing yesterday, NWC President Mark Barnett said the debt will be sold at a discounted rate. He didn’t disclose the discounted rate or the agency to which the debt is to be sold.

“There’s no specifics in terms of customer class. It will be inclusive of domestic, condominium and commercial [customers]. Obviously, government accounts will not be part of that,” he explained.

For the period May to July 2021, NWC targeted 20,747 accounts for disconnection, valued at $1.92 billion. The utility company actually disconnected 13,137 customers, which is equivalent to $1.6 billion. Of those customers, 9,122 reconnected, earning $384 million for the NWC.

“Based on our aggressive approach to collection, we have seen some positive movement in our revenue over the last three to four months. We did, in fact, see upwards of about 10 per cent increase in our monthly revenue as a result of these drives we are pursuing,” Barnett revealed.

But the NWC president said the additional no-movement days announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday evening will impact its disconnection drive.

“On the no-movement days, while we won’t be doing any disconnections, certainly on the movement days, we will be coming to you once you haven’t paid,” he warned.

In the meantime, Barnett disclosed that repairs to NWC facilities due to damage from the passage of Tropical Storm Grace amounted to $26 million. About 210 facilities were affected islandwide by the storm and as at September 1, 208 have been restored, while two remain out of operation.

Some $18 million was allocated for corrective works at the Aviary Sewerage Treatment Plant in Old Harbour, St Catherine, while $2 million was spent to fix a damaged pipeline in Yallahs, St Thomas. The remaining sum was spent to address heavy siltation, blocked pipelines, fallen trees and debris removal.

As to the impact of Tropical Depression Ida on NWC’s infrastructure, 60 facilities were affected, 50 of which have since been restored.

The NWC’s co-management non-revenue water (NRW) reduction programme, which commenced in 2015 within the Corporate Area, will soon come to an end.

In 2015, the NRW was more than 26.4 million imperial gallons per day; and as at July 2021, this was reduced to 15.4 million imperial gallons per day.

During the programme, 40,000 leaks were found, with more than 6,000 being non-visible.

Additionally, more than 13,000 new meters were installed in downtown Kingston.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com