If you are in arrears with your water bill, a debt collector may be knocking on your door soon.

That’s the word from the National Water Commission (NWC), which yesterday revealed that it plans to sell a portion of debt owed by its customers to a collections agency.

“It is our intention to look at a portion of our debt and package it so that we can sell it to any interested person who will then go after delinquents… We are working on [selling] anywhere from $15 [billion] to $20 billion of that debt,” NWC President and CEO Mark Barnett said yesterday.

He said no specific category of customers is being targeted, and that the debt sold would include those of domestic and commercial entities, but exclude Government accounts.

He was speaking at the NWC’s quarterly virtual press briefing on issues affecting the utility company, including non-revenue water losses, debt, and the impact of the passage of two adverse weather systems over the past two weeks.

The utility company has struggled over the years to collect from customers, compounded by massive losses in non-revenue water.

Barnett said, notwithstanding, the NWC has been seeing some positive direction in its revenue collection over the past four months, but did not give specifics.

“We did see upwards of 10 per cent increase in our monthly revenue, as a result of these drives that we are pursuing,” he said.

Between January and July the NWC targeted a total of 42,518 accounts for disconnection, valued at $4 billion. It managed to disconnect just over 30,000 or about 60 per cent for a total value of $3.5 billion. Over 18,400 accounts were reconnected, and the commission realised revenue of $884 million over the period.

Meanwhile, he said the COVID-19 lockdown measures were hampering disconnection activities, but warned that the agency would not be letting up on those who do not pay.

“On the movement days, we will be coming at you once you haven’t paid,” he said, pointing to a number of options which are now in place to facilitate electronic payment.

The NWC president also said its co-management partnership programme with Israel’s Mia International to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) in the Corporate Area has seen NRW losses moving from 26.4 million gallons daily in 2016 to 15.4 million gallons in July 2021, and dipping further in August this year. He said over the period about 40,000 leaks had been found. The programme will come to an end this month, after six years and a one-year extension.

At the same time, Barnett said the NWC continues to face apathy and other issues, which prevent it from collecting in the 61 socially challenged areas that it has identified in Kingston and St Andrew. The estimated daily water loss for these areas alone is 6.5 million gallons, a potential revenue of $1 billion.

The NWC is now going through the motions of preparing to make a tariff adjustment application to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) by next year. This would be three years after the OUR’s interim tariff determination of December 2019.

NWC’s systems fared well against tropical depression Grace and Hurricane Ida, Barnett also said, notwithstanding the $26 million in damage left behind by Grace, and the impact on 210 systems, 208 of which are already back in operation. Ida impacted 60 facilities, 50 of which have been fixed.