More for water bills
Barbadians will be paying more on their water bills from August 1.
That’s because Government will be introducing a Garbage and Sewage Contribution (GSC) to be levied through Barbados Water Authority (BWA) bills, which is expected to result in Government saving in the region of $65 million annually. This GSC, Prime Minister Mia Mottley says, will allow Government to remove the expenditure of the Sanitation Services Authority (SSA) from the Government’s budget, but she maintained it will remain a statutory corporation. Her comments came as she said it is likely that legislation will be coming to Parliament for approval to support the new levy. Mottley, who is also Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment made the announcement yesterday as she delivered the Annual Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposal in the House of Assembly.
“Households, Mr. Speaker will pay the equivalent of $1.50 per day for this Garbage and Sewage Contribution. Of that $1.50, $1.25 will go to the Sanitation Services Authority for the offsetting of its expenditure in garbage collection and $0.25 will be retained by the Barbados Water Authority as a contribution towards the maintenance of our sewage systems,” she said.
PM Mottley added, “In the case of commercial entities, their contribution will be 50 percent of their water bill with half of that amount going to the Sanitation Services Authority towards the garbage collection, and the other half remaining with the Barbados Water Authority.”
She made the disclosure while contending that it was unfair for only residents of Bridgetown and South Coast, connected to those sewage systems to bear all of the costs. As such, she stated that that fee will be reviewed, noting that the country is not isolated such that only those residents suffer when the systems are not operating at full capacity.
“We feel that it is necessary to review the fee paid by the customers residential and commercial, the sewage fee currently within the South Coast and Bridgetown, and after review we will determine for the country how best. But in the context of the new fees that I’ve just announced, it is my personal position that they ought to go, but in the absence of appropriate consultation with the Social Partnership, I am not prepared to announce it here today,” she said.
Mottley also announced that immediate remedial work that will cost approximately $15 million for the South Coast and $12 million for Bridgetown are being carried out. She explained that work forms part of Government’s $131.5 million capital expenditure programme that is being led by investment. Her remarks came as she revealed that the Vice President of the Canadian Crown Corporation was to be on island from yesterday to me with her and other members of Cabinet to discuss the long term renewal of the South Coast Sewage Plant and upgrades for the Bridgetown Plant.
She went on to say that the sum of $15 million has been allocated for the purchase of much needed garbage trucks.
“We also critically need to repair and buy new garbage trucks, public buses and purchase equipment for Ministry of Public Works, if you know what we have found you would cry. Barbados starts each day with about 15 garbage trucks and ends up at the end of the day with seven or eight…We need a minimum of 35 garbage trucks to service Barbados on a daily basis. This situation is untenable. We will seek immediately to acquire 15 second hand trucks within six to eight weeks out of Europe because the timeline for the delivery of new trucks is eight months we cannot continue with this situation for eight months,” she said.
Mottley made it clear that timeline was not speculative, noting that the previous Government ordered seven trucks in April, but they will not be delivered until November. She further indicated that the SSA will purchase a D9 tractor and a compactor at a cost of just under $3 million. She made the comments while noting that the SSA has been paying approximately $33,000 a week to a private company for the rental of those two pieces of equipment for over four and a half years. (JRT)