THE GOVERNMENT is moving to encourage private sector participation in the supply of water and Prime Minister P. J. Patterson has announced that legislative changes to allow this will go before Parliament in the next fiscal year.
Mr. Patterson has also pointed to local and foreign private sector participation in a US$39 million investment in a new water project in Hanover as signal of full recovery of the local financial sector, as well as growing confidence in the Jamaican economy.
"Amendments to the NWC Act to remove the power of the NWC to grant licences have been drafted," Mr. Patterson announced on Friday, while speaking at a function in Sandy Bay, Hanover to mark the start of the new Great River to Lucea Water Supply project.
He also said the Government would be establishing a new licensing regime for all service providers both public and private through a new Water Supply and Sewerage Act.
The Prime Minister said the move followed the creation of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) as an independent rate setter to ensure that private investors could be guaranteed a fair rate of return on their investments, even while protecting consumers from the inefficiencies which may arise in the delivery of utility services.
Those initiatives, Mr. Patterson said, had the effect of giving the private sector a legitimate role in the water sector, with the appropriate regulatory controls being in place to ensure high quality service and fair tariffs. He said all that was being done in addition to the Government's creation in 1998 of the Ministry of Water and subsequent formulation of a water sector policy.
In commending French contractors Sogea/Satom and their financiers BNP Paribas of France, National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Pan Caribbean Financial Services, the Prime Minister urged private sector interests to get involved in facing the challenges and seizing the opportunities of the current era, in the building of the nation.
Mr. Patterson said the Great River to Lucea water development marked "a defining moment." It was the first occasion, he said, on which a water project was being funded entirely by the private sector with the bulk of the financing coming from local sources. "What is happening here today is the culmination of a conscious, deliberate and systematic process by the Government of engaging the private sector in the business of development," he said.
According to Mr. Patterson, that was being done against the background of the Government having already invested heavily in infrastructure developments across the country, some $10 billion in western Jamaica alone. That expenditure included segment one of the North Coast Highway, the Lucea/Negril Water supply, Montego Bay/Great River water supply, the Negril and Montego Bay sewerage projects and the power generation plant in Bogue.
"We are conscious that the Government alone cannot exclusively, from its own resources, do everything," he said. "For while infrastructure development enhances the quality of life for the population, it also enables the expansion of production, increased efficiency and greater competitiveness as we seek to transform Jamaica and create world class standards. So it is in the interest of the private sector to be fully engaged."
Speaking to the socio-economic implications of the provision of water, the Prime Minister said the percentage of households with piped water has risen by some 10 per cent to more than 70 per cent since 1990. However, he said the Government was not satisfied with that figure and was seeking to enable all families to have access to safe drinking water by 2005. He said with only two years to go in reaching that target, the Government had to accelerate its efforts.
"The provision of potable water is a basic requirement in ensuring health, food, security, environmental protection and social stability in any modern society and is critical to life and economic well being," he said.
