KINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Water Commission (NWC), saying it would “much rather collect than prosecute” has stepped up its revenue recovery efforts to collect the billions owed in water bills.

According to tough-talking Vice President Divisional Operations, Michael Dunn, the NWC is very serious about collecting monies owed. He said that since the start of this year, NWC has strengthened its compliance departments to rigorously go after habitual delinquents and illegal users of water supply.

“We know who and where these persons are and every community will feel our presence bar none,” said Dunn.

He stated also that a number of interventions have been introduced over the years in a bid to get people to settle arrears; some of which include amnesties, payment arrangements and negotiated settlements, yet many people still fail to honour their responsibility in paying.

Dunn said that the NWC has been patient in the past and will be utilising “the full force of the law at its disposal to pursue delinquent customers”.

He pointed out that the Commission has already engaged the services of a number of lawyers and collection agencies, which are currently handling a large quota of these bad debt accounts islandwide.

The company is reporting that during the months of August and September, the Compliance Departments in St Catherine and Kingston, prosecuted a total of 19 delinquent customers with a combined debt of $3.9 million. For St Catherine, all seven people opted to settle their arrears totalling $562,556 out of court, the NWC said.