Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

The Government has denied that the National Water Commission (NWC) will be applying for a tariff adjustment to improve its performance.

This is despite a recommendation for the increase in a ministry paper, which was approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

The denial came while Fitz Jackson, State Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, moved a motion to guarantee a loan of US$16.08 million to the NWC from a consortium of banks led by BNP Paribas.

Operating deficits

According to the ministry paper, which outlined the loan guarantee, the NWC has been experiencing operating deficits, but that a "pending tariff increase should improve this performance in the 2007/08 financial year."

"This expected tariff adjustment should enhance its (NWC) cash surplus and hence, improve its ability to service the debt. This is supported further by the capital recovery mechanism being implemented by the commission," said the ministry paper.

But when pressed by Opposition Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw on whether the NWC had applied to the Office of Utilities Regulation for a tariff increase, the minister responsible for the NWC, Robert Pickersgill, said that no application had been made.

The House later approved the loan guarantee, which the NWC plans to use to increase the scope of works for the North Western Parishes Improvement Project (Martha Brae and Duncans Water Supply and Network Improvement) to extend the transmission pipeline to Runaway Bay.

Piped-water appeal

While supporting the motion, Opposition Member of Parliament for Clarendon North Central, Pearnel Charles, appealed to theGovernment to provide piped water for the community of Mocho in his constituency.

"The politics of the situation is that members of the PNP go to the area last week to say 'the reason you don't have any water is because you don't have any representative'," he told the House.

"I consider that to be immoral and dishonest to tell the people that the Government has not been petitioned. It becomes partisan politics to say vote for my candidate and you will get water," Charles added.

Responding to other concerns that projects like these should also benefit residential areas, Mr. Jackson said the project would not only provide water for commercial areas, but also residential areas.

The loan guarantee will be divided into two portions and has an interest rate of 4.96 per cent to be repaid over 14 months. The NWC will provide US$2.5 million for the project and proposes to recover a portion of the investment through the charging of impact fees to new developments that benefit from the water-supply project.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com