The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

MIAMI - MIYA’S non-revenue water (NRW) reduction project for the Water & Sewerage Corporation was yesterday endorsed at an international conference as a model that should be replicated throughout the Caribbean.

Brian Samuel, public-private partnership (PPP) coordinator with the Caribbean Development Bank, who was a panelist at the 2015 KPMG Island Infrastructure summit, described the Miya Bahamas project as one that “needs to be replicated throughout the Caribbean”.

“The Bahamas has a very reputable project that needs to be replicated around the Caribbean,” said Mr Samuel.

“It’s a project funded by the IDB. It’s a PPP where the operator is responsible for fixing the pipelines, and what it gets paid is based on the reduction in water losses. From my understanding it’s been very successful in the three or four years it has been operational.”

Miya, the water efficiency solutions provider, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Arison Investment Group, signed a 10-year, $83 million contract with the Water and Sewerage Corporation in 2012 to reduce the leakage from its distribution system.

It was part of an $81-million loan agreement between the Water & Sewerage Corporation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in December 2011, secured by a Government guarantee, for infrastructure improvements to the water systems on New Providence.

The Corporation was at the time losing close to seven million gallons of water a day, which cost it more than $16 million per year.

The Water and Sewerage Corporation’s general manager, Glen Laville, told Tribune Business earlier this year that it had saved $6.5 million through the first two years of its non-revenue water (NRW) reduction project, with its daily water losses having been cut in half.

In July, Miya signed a $42.5 million contract with the National Water Commission (NWC) in Jamaica under a programme to reduce non-revenue water losses in the Kingston and St Andrew area.

That project is also being fully funded by the IDB, and includes performance-based fees, which will be paid only if contract targets are achieved.