OUR demands answers from NWC on unscheduled water lock-offs
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has written to the National Water Commission (NWC) requesting information on its recent introduction of a regulated water supply schedule in sections of Kingston and St Andrew (KSA) as part of drought mitigation measures.
The NWC announced via a media release on February 17 that it would be implementing a regulated water supply schedule (12 hours each day) to some areas within KSA due to a reduction in inflows to a number of surface water sources. It further announced the regulation of water supply to additional communities in the KSA, effective March 1.
But since then there have been several complaints on social and mainstream media by NWC customers who have charged that the utility provider is not adhering to the water supply schedule, which is resulting in an inconvenience to them.
“The OUR recognises that there may be instances when the NWC’s water supply schedule will have to be varied. In such instances, the OUR’s view is that affected customers are to be notified,” the utility regulator said in a release on Wednesday.
The OUR, in a letter dated March 1, 2023, requested that the NWC submits a monthly report on its performance against its imposed water supply schedule to include information such as its compliance with its published water supply schedule; any deviations from the published water supply schedule and; the reason/s for deviations from the water supply schedule, if any.
“The OUR has also asked the NWC to supply additional information to support the ongoing regulatory assessment and monitoring of the water scheduling measure.
“These include the daily source [raw] water projections and water inflow data from the relevant NWC facilities; existing constraints on the NWC’s relevant water production, treatment and transmission and distribution facilities that may have contributed to water supply shortfall being experienced in the identified service areas; and, any planned maintenance of critical equipment associated with the NWC’s relevant water production, treatment and transmission and distribution facilities, during the period of the planned water scheduling operations,” the regulator said.
