WATER RUSH

George Hunter was among hundreds of National Water Commission (NWC) customers who crowded its Marescaux Road, St Andrew office yesterday, trying to benefit from the agency’s debt amnesty programme.

With more than $800,000 in arrears, the Sterling Castle, St Andrew resident said he was desperate for the relief the amnesty, which took effect on January 2, would offer him.

He told The Gleaner that he had been trying since then to get a reduction on the arrears, which he said were accumulated by the past owners of the property where he now resides.

An anxious Hunter expressed hope that the amnesty would be extended, noting that he has not had running water on the property for six years and, as a result, has to spend up to $17,000 fortnightly to secure the commodity.

“Mi just wah find out what is what, and then mi can know exactly how to move from there,” he said.

The amnesty, which was first announced by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness last year, was initially to last for three months. Yesterday, the NWC announced an extension to May 31 “to provide additional time for those in need to access assistance and have their applications processed”.

“In assessing the number of queries submitted over the past three months, the NWC acknowledges and understands there are challenges faced by many customers,” the agency said in a statement.

Under the amnesty, residential customers disconnected for six months or more will benefit from a waiver of reconnection fees and a 50 per cent debt write-off upon payment of the remaining 50 per cent.

Pensioners and PATH beneficiaries may get a 100 per cent discount on debts older than two years, which is applicable for both active and inactive accounts.

In addition to the programme, customers who are in arrears may also access benefits under the NWC’s Customer Relief Measures.

Novellete Brown, a Seaview Gardens, St Andrew resident, was also in line at the NWC’s offices yesterday to clear her debt. She shared that she had benefited from a 60 per cent discount on the more than $84,000 she had in arrears.

For her, the amnesty could not have come at a better time.

“Mi feel good about it still, because at least mi get some of it off. To move from $84,00 to $33,000; if mi did haffi pay di whole a dat, it would a tek a longer period,” she said.

A burst pipe on his property last year reportedly resulted in Horace Smith, a 74-year-old resident from Mountain View, St Andrew, amassing a NWC bill of $134,000. The retiree said there was no way that he and his wife could afford to pay this bill. Each month, they pay about $6,000 on the debt, but their worry lingered.

“Might be dem can reduce the amount, and make it more manageable,” Smith said.

Dale and Rosemarie Atkinson were also among the hopefuls on Monday. A property Dale inherited three years ago has saddled the couple with a $700,000 debt with the NWC.

Since then, the couple said they had cleared approximately $500,000 of it, but it has placed them under immense financial strain.

“We were paying it, but we can’t manage any more,” Rosemarie said. “Wi a throw wah hand a partner wid somebody to clear it off so wi can bring it dung to a level, but wi don’t get di draw yet.”

“It would help me out a lot to tek off some a di stress off a mi,” Dale chimed in.

Meanwhile, Delano Williams, acting corporate public relations manager at the NWC, told The Gleaner that more than 30,000 NWC customers made queries about the amnesty up to last week. Of this number, almost 8,000 people are fully processed, equating to more than $1 billion in debt write-offs.

Additionally, he said more than 5,000 accounts have been reconnected.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com