NWC added over 9,000 new connections in 2021
Published:Tuesday | July 12, 2022 | 9:40 AM
The National Water Commission (NWC) added just over 9,000 new connections to its network in 2021.
The Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2021 (ESSJ) reported that the number of connections increased from 518,199 to 527,270, mainly due to an expansion in Jamaica's housing and commercial building stock.
“This increase in connections resulted from a higher number of connections in Kingston, St Andrew & St Thomas (142,935 from 141,068) and Other Parishes (384,335 from 377,131),” the report said.
The utility's revenue also increased 11.1 percent to $38.1 billion, due to growth in the number of connections and an increase in the water and sewerage rates charged to customers.
This growth reflected increases of 11.7 percent to $15.4 billion in revenues for Kingston, St Andrew & St Thomas and 10.7 percent to $22.7 billion in revenues for Other Parishes.
The ESSJ also reported that NWC increased its water production by one percent and consumption by Jamaicans grew by an almost equal amount - 0.9 percent, with Kingston and St Andrew accounting for the largest share of consumption.
“This growth in water consumption was attributed to higher demand linked to the relaxation of measures implemented to restrict the spread of COVID-19 and an increase in the level of rainfall compared with 2020,” a section of the report read.
Higher usage of water was recorded in two service classes - residential and government, while schools, commercial facilities, condominiums and employees recorded lower consumption.
Similar to 2020, of the total water produced, approximately 75.1 percent was classified as non-revenue water - water that has been produced and is lost before it reaches the customer.
Non-revenue water as a percentage of total production was highest in Trelawny with 88.6 percent, followed by St Elizabeth with 87 percent and St Thomas with 85.7 percent.
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