The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

WATER and Sewage Corporation general manager, Glen Laville said WSC still has to invest upwards of an estimated $100 million to complete water main replacements on New Providence with the figure growing larger if the Family Islands are included.

The replacement of water mains and other infrastructural developments has been ongoing for some time under the New Providence Infrastructural Improvement Project.

Mr Laville noted yesterday “just about” $16 million is lost annually in non-revenue water, which accounts for about 56 per cent of the water WSC provides.

“We’ve been focusing on over the past couple years in replacing most of our larger mains and we’ve done that through contract work and then internally we’re focusing on trying to address some of our water quality issues – such as red water – which is a very common problem now,” he said.

“If I were to hazard a guess, I would say we still have to invest somewhere close to about $70 to $100 million dollars in terms of pipe replacement, if we’re looking at New Providence.

“If we start pushing out to the Family Islands, then the figure grows. It’s over $100 million that has to be invested in the Family Islands to bring everything up to where we want it to be.”

In addition to infrastructure improvement, Mr Laville noted, WSC is also concerned with improving the efficiency of the corporation in terms of energy consumption and water usage.

“We’re not only focusing on infrastructure replacement, we’re focusing on improving efficiency both at the pumping station level – where we’re trying to reduce our electricity consumption, and also in the effective use of water – so in terms of trying to locate and trying to solve some of our water loss problems,” he said.

“So it’s not just on the infrastructure side, it’s also on the management side and improving efficiencies.”

Mr Laville said a “common misconception” about non-revenue water is that infrastructure alone will solve the problem.

“It actually takes a very comprehensive solution to address the problem – such as pressure control, how we manage our assets, meter inaccuracies, addressing things like illegal usage, theft, that sort of thing,” he said.

“So while that infrastructure change-out is very good and beneficial, typically what occurs is that the pressure within the system increases and then those pipes that have not been replaced tend to cause ever more water losses. So it has to be a very comprehensive solution to addressing non-revenue water.”

He said currently non-revenue water – or water losses – are about 56 per cent.

“Basically for every two gallons that we put into the system only one gallon we receive revenue for – less than one gallon,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Inter-American Development Bank approved $65 million in supplementary financing for the New Providence Infrastructure Improvement Project.

IDB noted the purpose of the additional financing was “to replenish the depleted civil works budget in order to complete the construction works on numerous road corridors throughout the urban area in Nassau.”

Included in those works were additional water and sewerage mains renewal for a number of the affected corridors.

It was last year that WSC obtained an $81 million loan from IDB, with $49 million from that sum directed at reducing non-revenue water, $15.5 million for rehabilitating sewer plant infrastructure and designing a master plan for wastewater treatment, and $5.5 million for institutional strengthening of the Corporation to improve staff productivity and customer service.