Norman Grindley, Staff Photographer
Oh, for a cool drink. This little girl quenches her thirst at her school in the Corporate Area.Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
Many school administrators across the island could face legal prosecution for a current $7 million water bill if the National Water Commission (NWC) complies with the suggestion of Water Minister, Dr. Karl Blythe, to take public institutions to court for the unpaid water bills.
However, bills owed by schools represent only a small per cent of the total of $1.4 billion which private and public sector entities as well as individuals owe the NWC.
Public relations manager of the NWC, Charles Buchanan, said, "they (the schools) don't represent our worst group."
Mr. Buchanan explained that the $7 million figure is reasonable, given that "the average monthly bill for all schools is something in the region of $2-3 million, so that would mean that they are just over two months in arrears."
He said that the NWC understood that part of the problem for some schools was that under a new system, schools were now responsible for paying their utility bills.
"Previously they had never had to deal with us directly and never knew about a bill. The change has now led to us actually making contact and going to particular schools," he said.
He said that some schools have had the difficulty of being in communities where other persons were using the facility. "The Commission knows about this and has been working closely with them," he said.
"Schools do pay us, sometimes there is a back-log then they pay it off after a time and the account looks pretty, but only briefly," Mr. Buchanan explained, adding that the NWC had even opted for a course of prevention. "We have been encouraging conservation and have gone into several schools."
Meanwhile, some school administrators say that despite efforts at conservation the situation is often out of their control. Principal of the Denham Town Comprehensive High School in west Kingston, Clover Thompson-Gordon, explained that school's predicament: "Something is wrong. Our bill is high, it is an average of $50,000 per month. Right now we owe $300,000. We called in NWC to do a water audit because we couldn't figure out what was wrong. I don't know if the water is being pilfered or there's an underground leak. There was a pipe outside and we got that locked off, now I don't know if there is underground piracy."
She explained, however, that there were areas that would normally contribute to the hiked bill.
"Much of the water waste comes from the toilets - it's difficult to monitor the toilets which are often left running by the children."
Still, amassing the figure to repay the bill has proved a difficult task for the school. "It's hard for us to gather so much money, some 300 of our students are on cost-sharing and we are awaiting money from the Ministry of Education. We have had to ask NWC to give us some time to pay," she said.
A few other schools, however, have had success with mechanisms which were put in place to monitor water use. An official at Calabar High School in St. Andrew credited the school's current good standing and significantly lower bill with stringent efforts at tightening up.
"The staff is vigilant about conservation and as soon as we discover a leak we fix it. Even at $140,000 per year it's high - it should be $100,000. (But) We have no problems with water bills, we don't owe any money."
But while St. James High School in the parish also reported a clean bill, acting principal, Jeannette Solomon, was disappointed that schools were not considered for special concessions.
"NWC needs to look at schools and give us a special rate seeing that we are Government-run organisations," she said. However, Mr. Buchanan said, "Maybe they are not aware but schools have always had a special rate that is less than the regular rate for other customers."
Ms. Solomon said that the school with a population of 2,500 students had an average bill of "about $20,000 per month". But she explained that keeping the bill within this range was a daily task for the school.
"We try to conserve. Every night we turn off the pipes at 6 p.m., to prevent any leaks as well as to prevent pilfering. We are also vigilant with fixing leaks," she said.
Other schools like Mannings High School in Westmoreland indicated that while there was no immediate debt problem, the situation was of a steady increase. According to principal, Bonitto White, "We have managed to keep up with our bills, but it is a bit high. It has increased dramatically over the past 12 months. It amounts to $400,000 per year."
The school accommodates 1,900 persons including teachers and staff on the compound.
But the situation of unpaid bills and limited water supplies has been affecting some young students to the point where some travel regularly with water coolers or extra bottles of water brought from home.
One school in Trelawny sanctioned what it called a PTA suggestion that students contribute a weekly $10 fee in a bid to keep the school from losing its supply of piped water due to an outstanding bill. This was later discontinued after an emergency school board meeting this month.
Many schools rely on a system where they must wait for cheques for utility payment to be routinely disbursed from the Ministry of Education.
Information Officer, Edwin Thomas, explained that the grant which is given to primary level schools is disbursed each school term and is usually a standard figure. However, provision is made for occasions where that figure is exceeded by the current bill, given a timely notice.
"Where a school finds that it has to go beyond that amount then they can request more but they would then need to explain and depending on whether there are funds available, the Ministry would then try to deal with this taking the circumstances into account," he said.
Still responding to calls from some quarters that even this may not be enough and some leniency should apply as schools were Government dependencies, the Education Ministry acknowledged that schools were already on a programme of consideration.
