Jamaicans, get ready for
prepaid water.
The NWC (National
Water Commission) in their push to tackle illegal connections and outstanding
debt, plans to introduce prepaid water in 2018 as reported in the article “Prepaid
Water Could Be Coming This Year”, published Tuesday January 9, 2018 by Jerome
Reynolds, The Jamaica Gleaner.
This bit of info was
revealed during an interview with Corporate Public Relations Manager at the NWC
(National Water Commission) Charles Buchanan Power Talk on Power 106 FM on
Tuesday January 9, 2018. This is being considered in light of the following
facts relating to NWC customers:
1.
NWC
has 450,000 paying customers
2.
125,000
accounts are currently disconnected because of outstanding water bills
To translate that in
monetary terms:
1.
JA$20
billion is currently owed to the NWC by customers
2.
Majority
of the debt is in arrears for more than 90 days
3.
25%
of the arrears is owed by customers who have been disconnected for unpaid bills
This may be an
extension of a previous NWC initiative to launch Prepaid water based on Water
tanks as detailed in the article “NWC Looking
into Prepaid Water Tank Programme”, published February 28, 2014 By Rodger
Hutchinson, The Jamaica Information Service. Several
factors are being considered, such as the type of customer who would benefit
from prepaid water.
So how will this be
achieved?
NWC
and Prepaid Water - Digital Water Meters, Rainwater Harvesting Legislation on
the horizon
Since prepaid water
would require more accurate billing, it is also an indication of the coming of
Digital Water meters as long predicted in my blog article entitled “Why
NWC Digital Water Meters means Water Rate Increase coming in 2016”.
This is part of the
NWC's plan to reduce the impact of non-revenue water on their system as noted
in “Gov’t
To Reduce Non-Revenue Water”, published Friday September 22, 2017, The Jamaica Gleaner.
If Digital Water meters are coming, further legislation for the introduction of Rainwater Harvesting may be in the works as predicted in my blog article entitled “How Rainwater Harvesting Bill means Rainwater Net Billing to end NWC's Water monopoly”.
Not only would more
accurate Digital Meters reduce water losses, it may also make it easier for
third-party water providers to enter the market, as explained in my blog article
entitled “How
NWC’s Water Conservation in Drought 2016 means Rainwater Harvesting with
Digital Meters”.
Competition in the
water sector is always good; expecting that Prepaid Water will mean more water
companies and possibly lower water bills!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment