Ms. Molly Lyn James This is Me

 View all 9 references Web References

1. 1. www.jis.gov.jm

   www.jis.gov.jm/water_housing/h - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/31/2007   Last Visited: 8/31/2007

   The suspension covers the period August 19 to September 17, but Chief of Water and Transport Regulations at the OUR, Marie James in an interview with JIS News, said the situation would be reviewed this weekend.
   
   "We actually asked for a restoration plan. We're presently reviewing it, and by the end of the week, the Communication Department should put something out. What we are doing is, we're collating all the information from all the providers in the water and sewerage sectors ... we're going to put out a general statement on what the status is and when full service is expected to be restored.by weekend," she said.
   
   Explaining the suspension, Miss James informed that both the Overall Standards and the Guaranteed Standards schemes have been suspended. The Quality of Service Scheme for the National Water Commission sets out overall standards, which identify performance measures for water quality, water pressure, reliability of supply, sewerage effluent quality and change of water meter by which the NWC can be assessed.
   
   With respect to the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, under normal circumstances, customers could claim compensation for any breaches in services relating to access to water supply (connections), delivery of bills, response to bill-related and non-bill related complaints, account status, meter installation, repair or replacement of faulty meters, meter reading, reconnections, payment of overdue amounts, and payment of compensation by the NWC to customers.
   
   "Generally speaking, it (the standards) can be suspended if something happened out of the control of the company, and hurricane is a part of it, bad weather, natural disaster, civil unrest, strikes - those are a part of the list of conditions that will allow them to apply for a suspension," Miss James outlined.
   
   "During this time period, what the customers of NWC would need to know is that if, for example, the water pressure is low, or let's say they file a complaint, and NWC didn't respond within five working days, according to the standards, they cannot submit a claim and say, 'you have breached this standard' because of the circumstances surrounding it. Even if the customer applies while submitting a claim for a breach, the company will say, but the standards are suspended until after September 17," she pointed out.
   
   She noted that poor water quality and unreliability in supply are some of the usual effects of the passage of a hurricane on the public water supply system.
   
   "This would be high turbidity because of the soil erosion or because of the hurricane, because of the flooding or you may not get water 24 hours because of a breakdown in the system or there is no light, so its unreasonable to expect the company to deliver continuous service given that they (NWC) have to wait on JPS (Jamaica Public Service) to reconnect," she reasoned.

2. 2. www.oocur.org

   www.oocur.org/2ndConference/Fi - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/5/2004   Last Visited: 11/17/2007

   Presenter: Ms. Marie James, Economist, OUR

3. 3. OOCUR - Organisation of Caribbean Utility Regulators

   www.oocur.org/Proceedings/Part - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/19/2003   Last Visited: 11/17/2007

   Ms. Marie Lyn James Economist, Office of Utilities Regulators (OUR) PCJ Resource Centre Third Floor, 36 Trafalgar Road Kingston 10, Jamaica Tel. 876-968-6057 Fax 876-929-3635