Budget Watch: NWC Less of A Fiscal Risk to Gov’t – Prime Minister Holness  

 

• The State-owned National Water Commission (NWC) is now less of a fiscal risk to the Government, says Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness. He told the House of Representatives, during his 2023/24 Budget Debate presentation on Thursday (March 16), that over the last financial year, the NWC recorded significant achievements at the strategic and operational levels, resulting in a “stronger, more robust utility, able to better carry out its mandate”.
• “NWC’s financial performance has shown a worthy turnaround, moving from a net loss of $2.13Bn in the 2021/22 financial year to a net year-to-date profit of $2.73Bn as of January 2022/23. This performance means that the NWC is now much less of a fiscal risk to the Government,” the Prime Minister said.
• More than $7Bn of capital investment will be made in fiscal year 2023/24 to support NWC projects, now underway, either in construction or procurement. Additionally, 21 other islandwide water supply upgrading and expansion projects are programmed for the upcoming fiscal year, with a projected expenditure of more than $2.5Bn. This will see the NWC’s services being extended to new communities.
• Prime Minister Holness said that in the new fiscal year, the NWC will spend more than $900Mn to ensure more efficient pumping operations while deploying more renewable energy within its operations. Additionally, a public-private partnership project was launched last year, which will see a floating photovoltaic system being built at the Mona Reservoir in St. Andrew. The project will result in an investment of more than US$68Mn, 45MW of Firm Capacity and will save the NWC over $1Bn annually. The test phase has been completed, with full construction set to commence in May 2023.

(Source: JIS)