The National Water Commission (NWC) is reporting that the persistent practice of illegally connecting to the piped water supply network is wreaking havoc on its distribution operations, especially in several areas of St Elizabeth, and is to be blamed for many of the supply problems affecting that parish.

“Many of our customers near the end of our pipeline networks are unable to get water simply because other persons are stealing the water before it gets to them,” a news release from the agency quotes Assistant Vice-President Jermaine Jackson.

“For example, we are unable to get water to sections of Bull Savannah because of illegal connections in the area,” he added.

The company said that so rampant and damaging is water theft in the region that it has to dedicate two days out of each week to conduct operations, with police support, to remove illegal connections from the network.

Jackson, who is also regional manager for Manchester and St Elizabeth, said that most of the water supply systems in both parishes have in fact maintained their normal production outputs, despite below-normal rainfall which has resulted in a significant reduction in the yield from about 20 per cent of the NWC’s 450 water supply sources islandwide.

He said the problem of water theft is being experienced most on the NWC’s Munro/Malvern supply system, severely hampering efforts to get water to Malvern, Munro, Hampton, Bethlehem, Belleview, Top Hill, Southfield, Seaview, Congo Hole, Yardley Chase, St Marys, Portsea, Milksham, Red Bank, Top Flagaman, and Round Hill.

The NWC said that the problem has forced it to patrol the length of its cross-country transmission pipeline, two to three times per month, with welding equipment and police security to keep the pipeline functioning.

“Many of the approximately 20 to 30 illegal connections removed on each patrol are used to irrigate fields for legal and illegal farming purposes, a demand for which the potable water system was never designed, in any event,” the NWC said.