NWC meets quality standards: Paper

Jamaica's national water commission (NWC) has rebuffed accusations against the quality of its drinking water, saying it "consistently" meets quality standards for some 90% of its water, the Jamaica Observer reported. Earlier this week the country's utilities regulation office (OUR) announced that the quality of water produced by the NWC during the last fiscal year did not meet health-ministry standards for chlorine and bacteria. The NWC claims the OUR's statement was made "on the basis of some aggregate percentage," the paper added. It argued that the report did not properly take into account water quality in specific regions and water systems. "This is not to say shortcomings do not periodically occur," the paper quoted an NWC statement as saying. "A constantly deteriorating raw water quality due to deforestation, squatting and dumping of garbage continue to have a serious impact on water quality." The other 158 minor systems, which produce less than 500,000 g/d (2M l/d) and account for 10% of the NWC's water production, do not have full treatment facilities, while lack of electricity or heavy rainfalls in some areas hamper treatment. The NWC has a monopoly for the treatment and distribution of drinking water on the island, except for two small north coast companies to which it gave licenses to deliver the resource.