THE Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) says that the quality of water produced by the National Water Commission during the last financial year failed to meet chlorine and bacteria standards with the consistency demanded by the health ministry.

Last night the NWC reacted angrily to the OUR report, saying that it may "falsely give the impression" that the public could be at risk by drinking water supplied by the company.

"While not having the benefit of the source of these reports, the National Water Commission must assure its customers that there is no risk to their health posed by using water supplied by the NWC," said the state-owned company's spokesman, Charles Buchanan in a statement responding to Observer questions.

Buchanan insisted that NWC water was ranked with the best in the world by "objective international standards", but did not detail what these were or how Jamaica stacked up against other countries.

In its annual report released yesterday, the OUR, the government's utilities watchdog, had suggested that the presence of coliform bacteria in water supplied by the NWC lagged by 10 percentage points in relation to the proportion of samples that should be free of bacteria in order to meet health ministry standards.

Regarding the requirement that residual chlorine be present in NWC water, it failed by four percentage points to meet the government's standards.

The OUR also complained in its report of its inability to get information from the government-owned water company, making it difficult for it to determine whether the failure to meet standards was, in part, the result of flood rains in May and June last year.

"At the time of writing, the OUR had not received a list of affected areas (treatment plants), consequently the Office cannot comment on whether the low water quality was a result of the affected systems," the utilities watchdog agency said in its report.

The NWC has a monopoly for the treatment and distribution of potable water in Jamaica, except in the case of two small north coast companies which it gave licences to deliver the commodity.

The OUR report is likely to be highly embarrassing to the company which recently launched a slick mass media campaign aimed at softening public perception of the NWC. The campaign comes ahead of expected hikes in water rates.

According to the OUR, under the water quality standards set by the Jamaican health ministry, no less than 95 per cent of the samples tested should be negative for bacteria coliform and 95 per cent positive for residual chlorine.

"The reports as of March 2003 (the end of the financial year) indicate that the average of total water samples tested that were negative with coliform bacteria was 85 per cent," the OUR said. "This is less than the 95 per cent stipulated by the MOH (Ministry of Health) interim standards."

With regard to the presence of residual chlorine in water, the OUR said that 93 per cent of the required 95 per cent of samples were tested "and of this amount an average of 91 per cent had residual chlorine".

Added the OUR: "These figures indicated that the NWC was unable to meet any of the three standards stipulated by the MOH. By extension, the target to be 99 per cent compliant with the MOH Interim Standard as outlined in the regulatory framework were not met."

According to the OUR, in the 2001/2002 financial year it requested that the NWC "investigate and implement measures to correct the deteriorating water quality".

The water supplier told the OUR that there was intense routine and preventative maintenance taking place as well as improvements to five major treatment systems, which would correct the problems.

Subsequent flood rains in May and June may have undermined these efforts and the OUR, being aware of this, said it wrote to the NWC for a list of affected areas.

It was to this latest request that the agency had not received an answer up to the time it was preparing the report.

But in last night's statement, the NWC said the quality of its water meant that it was only in Jamaica that cruise ships collected water while on trips in this region.

"... Jamaica is one of the few countries where the water can be drunk from the tap. Even in many developed countries this is not recommended," Buchanan said.

There were instances, mainly in deep rural areas, where the water system will be affected by turbidity caused by heavy rainfall and environmental degradation, the NWC spokesman said. And he conceded that some large plants needed to be maintained.

"It is exactly for these, and other reasons, that the National Water Commission has applied to the Office of Utilities Regulation for a tariff adjustment to allow proper maintenance of water supply systems and the implementation of improvement projects," Buchanan said.

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