Cummings: Grenadines consumers will pay if given a public water supply

The shadow Minister for Transport, Works, Energy, Water and Housing in the New Democratic Party (NDP) is of the opinion that consumers in the Grenadines will pay for solid waste services, if they are provided with a public water supply.{{more}}

Parliamentary Representative Daniel Cummings, at an NDP press conference last Wednesday, January 18, gave the guarantee that payments for these services will be made when the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Central Water and Sewerage Authority provide water to the islands.

“What is happening now, is that the people in the Grenadines are asked to pay a levy for solid waste management…. The CWSA doesn’t have an effective mechanism for billing the people now; on the mainland St Vincent that level is associated to a water bill; you have no water bill in the Grenadines, because there is no public water supply to the Grenadines.

“I am saying that if you provide a public supply to the Grenadines, just as the people on the mainland have no difficulty paying solid waste fees here, when you do that the people in the Grenadines will pay their water and solid waste; I am certain about that.”

A day before Cummings’ comments, General Manager of the CWSA Garth Saunders announced that solid waste management fees to the Grenadines will increase from $5.00 to $10.00, as part of the new rates which come into effect at the end of January this year.

He also indicated that the consumers there owe his institution up $750,000, which is difficult to collect since there is no official bill, and that the Authority was looking into another means of collecting fees.

Cummings, a former manager of the CWSA, lamented that the supply of water to the Grenadines was long over due, and reasoned that it was only due to political bias that this was not done.

“It was a project underway; should have been continued by this government. There has been nothing done with respect to the people of the Grenadines in this day and age….

“Think about it: you can’t even get to wash your hands; you have to live in the Grenadines or visit for a couple days in the dry season to understand what the conditions are like; so, put the emphasis, Mr Saunders and the government, on putting water supply in the Grenadines and I guarantee you the people of the Grenadines will be willing to pay solid waste services.

“They know that, but they ducking it because the Grenadines is not politically important to them; that’s how this government functions.”(JJ)