IRONSHORE, St James — President of the National Water Commission (NWC) Mark Barnett says appropriate financing is needed to improve service delivery to the people of Jamaica.

“The National Water Commission produces more than 90 per cent… of Jamaica’s total potable water supply, but is seriously challenged to improve and expand service delivery every day. To continue to provide such quality and to improve services require the appropriate financing,” Barnett said.The NWC president said water utility services are funded using either user tariffs, or taxpayer subsidies or out of depreciation of the existing assets.Barnett said in the case of the NWC, despite not receiving any direct transfers from the Government of Jamaica, the cost to provide the service is entirely based on user fees and out of depreciation. He added that tariffs have never covered the full cost nor have they allowed for the level of investment at the lowest cost.According to Barnett, the NWC has developed its outlined capital investment plan, 2015-2030. He said in order to achieve the investment targets, it is estimated that expenditure amounting to approximately US$3.5 billion for utility service areas and close to US$5 billion, inclusive of all areas, are required to effect the desired water supply improvements islandwide. Barnett said this means the average annual capital investment required to tackle utility areas is estimated at US$230 million or just below J$30 billion.“Regrettably, our current average annual capital expenditure is… less than 20 per cent of what is required. It is also within the above context to note that current revenue billed 2016/2017 stood at US$209 million or J$27.15 billion with an efficiency totalling US$180.5 million or J$23.46 billion (meaning cash used to operate and finance the business). Operating expenses (OPEX) are just about 85 per cent of operating cash flow,” Barnett disclosed.“Ladies and gentlemen, something has to change radically if we are to achieve our Vision 2030 targets. The idea of doing nothing or deferring action is not an option when considering the time spent fetching water, additional burden on health care system, time spent off work as a result of water-borne disease as well as those who care for those affected, deaths each year ascribed to death due to bad water and sanitation, and those who rely on water in producing services as well as delay in commencing daily work,” Barnett warned.“Not only do we need to have radical changes in the financing and governing of water and wastewater service provision, but serious consideration and changes are also needed to treat with gaps and conflicts in economically viable versus non-viable service zones, as well as the rural versus urban and wastewater versus potable water investment ratios,” Barnett added.Barnett was addressing the opening ceremony of a three-day Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)/Government of Jamaica/National Water Commission water sector conference yesterday. The conference is being held at the Riu Hotel Montego Bay located in St James.During the three-day conference, a case study analysis on “Caribbean Water and Sanitation Utilities” will be presented and reviewed.There are said to be two main findings, the first of which has to do with financial planning.“Most countries do not include a long-term financial plan with their sector policies and limited funding makes planning difficult, which causes governments to focus on resolving short-term problems instead of more comprehensive initiatives that improve the overall sector,” Therese Turner Jones, general manager of the IDB, said yesterday.The second finding has to do with collection of data in order to generate information for planning.“Information regarding quality of service, non-revenue water (NRW), and operating efficiency is poor in many of the water utilities. It was found that few water utilities measure, collect, or can readily access data on the quality of the services they provide. This lack of information not only affects the assessment of utility, but also makes it more difficult to develop solutions to improve the quality of service, NRW, and operating efficiency. The lack of information also reflects poorly on the utility, given that it decreases transparency and accountability,” Turner Jones said.