Jamaica's water and housing ministry will not be issuing any more licenses to private companies looking to provide potable water until the national water policy is revised. Ministry head Horace Chang said that when the policy was formulated in 2002, legislators rushed to involve the private sector and shift the responsibility for investments to provide potable water access from the government.

Dr. Chang was addressing the Rural Water Programme Workshop on the Sustainability of Community Managed Water Supply Systems Project, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), held on 3 June 2009, at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston.

The ministry's permanent secretary Genefa Hibbert has been instructed to lead a review of the water sector policy, which has contradictions and unreasonable proposals, Chang said. He added that the impracticality of private suppliers charging water rates competitive with the rate charged by the National Water Commission (NWC) was also posing a problem. "Until the issues are resolved, I'm not signing anymore licenses," Chang said.

Jamaica's water sector policy was passed to facilitate development and assist the process of meeting the national goal of universal access by 2010.

Web site: National Water Commission (NWC)

Source: JIS, 04 Jun 2009

Tags: governance, latin america & caribbean, policies & legislation, water supply