Jamaica, February 25, 2018 – National Water Commission Taking Residents to Court
Kingston, Jamaica (Mckoy’s News) – Jamaica’s public water utility company, National Water Commission (NWC), is aggressively taking legal actions against inactive account holders to recover over J$175 million that it is owed.
According to the National Water Commission, the legal enforcement actions are taken only after attempts to regularise the accounts of delinquents were unsuccessful.
The NWC reports that a total of 33,000 persons are owning the commission a tallied sum of J$4 billion.
According to the government-owned National Water Commission, 21,000 of the total persons owning for water usage arrears were customers whose services were disconnected for non-payment, who somehow still received active unmetered water supply on their premises. This supply generated a J$2.4 billion deficit in the water supply rate.
The water commission states that for the year 2017 alone, water investigators discovered 2,463 illegal connection which resulted in a loss of over J$162 million.
In a revenue recovery operation last year at the Bogue Village housing development, in the parish of St James, the Water Commission unearth 32 properties with water supply disconnected for delinquencies, which were found with illegal water connections.
The NWC then applied over J$900,000 in back supply cost to the accounts of persons caught with the illegal water supply. One person was arrested from Bogue Village and charged under the NWC Act, for trespassing on the works of the NWC.
Last year October the water commission brought legal actions against five residents of Portmore and Spanish Town in St. Catherine for outstanding balances totalling J$7.5 million. According to the NWC, three other persons in the parish settled their water debts outside of court, totalling J$600,000.
The utility company also reportedly prosecuted over 50 people in its eastern division, over a three month period last in 2017.
