The Barbados Consumer Empowerment Network (BCEN) is calling for immediate reforms to ensure there is fair compensation and accountability in the provision of water services to Barbadians.
Executive director Maureen Holder voiced the organisation’s “serious concern” over the recent Fair Trading Commission (FTC) report, which showed that between 2021 and 2024, more than 5 400 Barbados Water Authority (BWA) customers were eligible for more than $120 000 in compensation due to below-standard service, “yet not a single cent was paid”.
“This repeated failure will continue to have significant impacts on household finances, public health and overall quality of life, as many communities continue to experience unreliable or insufficient water supply,” she said yesterday.
“BCEN particularly notes that the current system places the full burden of claiming compensation on consumers, many of whom are unaware of their rights or the procedures for submitting claims.”
Holder said this “represents a critical information gap and a fundamental imbalance of responsibility between service provider and customer”.
To address what it deemed as systemic issues, BCEN has called for a number of reforms focused on consumers. It is urging the BWA and the Ministry of Water Resources to:
• establish a dedicated consumer liaison unit to manage complaints efficiently and ensure timely resolution;
• conduct a nationwide information campaign by utilising bills, social media and community outreach to educate consumers on their rights, while publishing detailed performance metrics and compliance rates to allow public monitoring and accountability;
• introduce automatic bill credits for all verified breaches of service standards, removing the need for manual claims and ensuring prompt redress;
• implement independent oversight, with an impartial body monitoring compliance and investigating complaints to prevent systemic neglect;
• encourage consumer documentation, advising customers to maintain records of service interruptions, including dates, times and photographs, to support claims and reinforce accountability; and
• set a clear timetable for reform, publicly communicating milestones to ensure all corrective measures are implemented promptly and effectively.
Holder also stressed that the FTC “must move beyond reactive reporting”.
“The Commission plays a critical role in actively monitoring service delivery, ensuring accessible compensation procedures and intervening promptly when standards are not met. Relying solely on annual reports to identify failures leaves consumers unprotected and erodes public trust,” she asserted.
The FTC regulates ten BWA guaranteed service standards for residential and commercial customers.
These are installation of service, issuance of first bill, response to complaints, wrongful disconnections, meter installations or meter repositioning (existing service), repair/replacement of a faulty meter, reconnection after payment of overdue amount and reconnection fee, application for reconnection of service previously disconnected from the main, scheduling of field appointments and reliability of supply.
The FTC’s December 12, 2022 decision on standards of service for the BWA 2023-2025 states that residential customers can claim compensation of $15 and commercial customers $30 for guaranteed
service standard breaches by the BWA.
In that ruling, the FTC decided that guaranteed standards of service “require compensation in the form of a credit to each individual customer submitting a claim, when affected by the BWA’s failure to meet the defined target for the relevant standard”.
Customer claims must be submitted within three months of occurrence of the event giving rise to the claim and the BWA “shall investigate and resolve all claims within two months”.
Under the Utilities Regulation Act, the FTC has the power to instruct utilities to pay their customers compensation for below standard service.
Section 21 states that “where a service provider fails to meet prescribed standards of service, the service provider shall make to any person who is affected by the failure, such compensation as may be determined by the commission”.
Further, Section 38 empowers the FTC to “make rules, regulations and orders with respect to imposing penalties for non-compliance with prescribed standards of service; and prescribing amounts to be paid to the person referred to in Section 21 for failure to provide a utility service in accordance with the standards of service set by the Commission”. (SC)
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