Crackdown on delinquents

THE National Water Commission (NWC) says it is aggressively pursuing registered customers who can afford to settle their overdue bills but refuse to pay, with thousands already disconnected and placed on repayment programmes. Water, Environment and Climate Change Minister Matthew Samuda said customers making occasional payments should not assume they will escape action as the utility moves to recover outstanding revenue. Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s St Andrew headquarters on Wednesday, Samuda said the commission has traditionally given customers room to address their arrears once they were making payments.

However, he said, enforcement has intensified since its debt amnesty. “Over the last year, I’d say post the amnesty, those who didn’t come forward and say they have these issues, we’ve had thousands who have been disconnected and been put on a six-month programme to clear their space,” he said. The NWC had implemented general and micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) amnesty programmes ending on May 31, 2025 and December 31, 2025, respectively.

The general amnesty provided write-offs of up to 100 per cent for vulnerable groups pensioners, Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries, disabled individuals and graduated discounts for residential accounts. Additionally, MSMEs benefited from a 50 per cent waiver on qualified arrears and reconnection fee write-offs for eligible establishments. The water minister pointed to the amnesty’s success as an effort to help customers resolve long-standing liabilities and return to regular payment.

He said approximately 14,000 customers had been brought back into the formal system, while the commission was working through issues involving another 16,000. Against that backdrop, the water minister argued that there was a stark difference between those who simply cannot afford to pay the fees charged and those who refuse to pay, even while capable of doing so. “So we’ve tried the first route, which is to be nice for those who did not engage during that process because we’re still going through approximately 16,000 persons to resolve some of these long-standing issues,” he said.

“If we detect theft in an area and at a facility based on consumption that obviously could pay for it, I assure you we’ll enforce, we’ll enforce hard,” warned Samuda.