NWC no longer a financial burden, says PM

 

Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness says the National Water Commission (NWC) is no longer a financial burden on the country's budget. 

 

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon at a hand-over ceremony of 12 water trucks to the Commission, Dr. Holness said the financial challenges that plagued the utility company for many years have been remedied.

 

He cited improved management at the Commission. 

 

"One strategic management decision would be, for example, the implementation of the non-revenue water projects which would have reduced significantly water losses on the balance sheet of the NWC and would have secured their revenues. But we have also taken other important decisions that would have put our balance sheet, the NWC's balance sheet, in much better positions. For example, in terms of loans that we have taken and how those were financed. 

 

"And all of that has made it possible for the NWC, first and foremost, not to come to the government for money to pay off loans on which they would have not performed well on. And we have not had that in a little while, which is good. It means that the NWC is no longer the fiscal risk to the government that it was," he asserted.

 

Dr. Holness said the new trucks will be deployed to western Jamaica to aid in the delivery of water to communities ravaged by the storm. 

 

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said the government is in the process of hiring more trucks for the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) to aid in the removal of tonnes of debris in western Jamaica. 

 

He said the government will be carrying out a major cleanup campaign this week to remove debris and garbage, which now pose a health risk to residents in many communities in western Jamaica. 

 

"So we launched last week the National Cleanup Programme. On Wednesday, they will actually begin doing the cleanup. That will require the mobilisation of a fleet of trucks. I don't believe that we have enough trucks in Jamaica to have a concentrated effort on it. We will try to hire as many as possible. But the truth is we can't take the trucks from what they are currently doing. Many of those trucks are in construction and they are doing all kinds of other things. So we will bring as many private trucks in. But the NWC, the NSWMA, they need to have certain internal minimum capacity to respond. And therefore, the government has said we are going to build that minimum capacity," he outlined.