Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Portmore under NWC microscope

Published:Wednesday | February 23, 2022 | 4:51 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Representatives of the National Water Commission  on Windermere Avenue in Cumberland, St Catherine, where residents have connected a water hose to a fire hydrant, channelling water to a common area in the community.
Representatives of the National Water Commission on Windermere Avenue in Cumberland, St Catherine, where residents have connected a water hose to a fire hydrant, channelling water to a common area in the community.
A bucket is used to catch water in Cumberland, St Catherine.
A bucket is used to catch water in Cumberland, St Catherine.
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Portmore has come under the microscope as the National Water Commission (NWC) ramps up its campaign to plug the holes and leaks in its islandwide water distribution network. This is in response to the growing number of residential and commercial customers who have found ingenious ways to bypass its metering mechanisms or plug directly into its system.

One of the disturbing findings since the focus on Portmore began is that unmetered customers who tap into the system tend to use three to four times the 3,000-5,000 gallons of water that the metered customers average per month.

An average of 1,600 leaks per month have been detected in Portmore, along with cases of tampering, the NWC’s community relations manager for the its Eastern Division, Delano Williams, told The Gleaner on Friday, even as his team was carrying out a crackdown on Windermere Avenue in Cumberland, Portmore.

“We found over 3,000 illegal connections across the community and we’ve had to be dealing with those and to treat with those on a monthly basis. For the month of January, our teams found over 190 illegal connections, a number of which are bypasses, straight connections, people taking off the meters, and we found 10 which were particular for us because they were new people. People who never had any connections at the premises and instead of engaging the NWC they have taken alternative measures to try to access our network, and we want to remind persons that this is illegal and we will go the full extent of the law to make sure that you are penalised for these activities.”

This has resulted in a number of arrests with cases now before the courts at various stages. Williams explained that as a result, a number of persons have been forced to pay fines at the courts, as well as to the NWC, including back charges for the period over which the utility company would have lost revenue.

On Friday, the NWC team was called to a fire hydrant which had a hole drilled into one of its metal caps to accommodate a small piece of half-inch PVC piping unto which a hose was attached and been used to irrigate a mini football field in the park. It was camouflaged by a number of plants deliberately planted around it, in keeping with the landscaping of the area. The hose which had earlier been used to water the pitch, as evidenced by the wet ground, was disconnected and water was flowing into a five-gallon keg and overflowing, with the area well saturated.

“Someone has seemingly drilled or punched a hole into the hydrant appurtenance itself and that is now causing us a concern because the hydrant is here for the benefit of the community, should the fire brigade need to access water in emergency cases. We are therefore going to reach out to our partners at the fire brigade to do further maintenance work, not just at this hydrant but also to make an assessment of the other hydrants with the community, to detect any other tampering. We’ve been actively sweeping the municipality of Portmore on a monthly basis as part of the non-revenue Water Reduction Programme that is underway by our international consultants, Myers International,” Williams advised.

TO STOP THE LEAK

The hole was plugged to stop the leaking and the garden hose seized by the NWC team as they are empowered under law to do.

“The focus on Portmore is an effort to improve its service delivery and to ensure that there is equity with water supply. What we have found is that persons who are unmetered or who are tapping into networks illegally tend to use three to four times more water than what the average metered customers uses, and so a lot of times we see that the commercial losses are so significant and we want to arrest that matter in order to make sure that our company is running as efficiently as possible,” NWC executive pointed out. He lamented that this was happening at a time when the NWC had stepped up its efforts to ensure that persons can access water safely.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com