SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Water provider, the National Water Commission (NWC) says it has intensified its revenue enhancement and recovery machinery, with a view to stamping out water theft in St Elizabeth and the wider Jamaica.

In a release, the NWC said water theft was having a “debilitating effect on the NWC’s operations – compromising the availability and reliability of the water supply to its legitimate customers and robbing the commission of much needed revenue”.

The company said that over the “past months”, its revenue recovery unit, “undaunted by the inherent challenges,” has been in ‘overdrive’ – conducting extensive operations in the bread basket parish, St Elizabeth, which registers an alarmingly high rate of water theft. This situation has developed due to the insistence of many farmers in the parish on using domestic water for irrigation purposes.

“Farmer, mainly from the communities of Duff House, New Forest, Comma Pen, Bull Savannah, Rose Corner, Well Road, Alligator Pond main road and Chocolate Hole in the parish, have used some very ingenious and circuitous ways of abstracting the water, making it even more difficult to trace the connection to their properties. They are also very persistent and have been reconnecting to the pipe network as soon as they are disconnected,” the release said.

Michael Dunn, vice-president of NWC’s Customer Service Delivery, is quoted as likening the situation to a “cat-and-mouse game between the NWC and the farmers”.

“Whenever we leave the communities they are at it again. Where is their moral compass?” he lamented.

Dunn noted that “the effects of their criminal acts have been egregious and have stymied efforts of the NWC to sustain a reliable and regular supply, specifically to customers in the growing commercial district of Junction”.

The NWC said that “despite the challenges, the operation has reaped notable results as 195 illegal connections were removed from the NWC’s piping network, and Junction and adjoining communities that have been without regular piped water for several months are now reporting significant improvements in their water supply. In addition, three farmers have been arrested and charged with illegal abstraction of water and trespassing on the works of the commission”.