Minister with responsibility for Water, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda has lauded the recent ISO Accreditation of the NWC Instrumentation and Meters Laboratory.
The accreditation of the Meter Test Lab is one of the most important unseen areas of the NWC operations. This test bench and the accreditation underlines the NWC’s strategic decision to ensure that customers’ meters are verified as accurate by not just local standards but international standards.
Speaking at the Ribbon Cutting event on Wednesday (July 19, 2023), Minister Samuda stated that the facility will build customer confidence in the accuracy of the measurement readings.
“You [NWC] have increased capacity for testing with best-in-class equipment, and that’s a big deal, confidence in Jamaica is critical. I want my team members when they go in the field to speak definitively about the work that NWC does, and this is one such tool that will help you to speak definitively when you speak to customers”.
Minister Samuda added that the certification of the Meters Laboratory is part of the NWC’s $7 Billion investment programme. “This will ensure that every drop that we collect, store, process and distribute, gets to customers. But Jamaicans have to know how much water they’re using, and this is the final step in ensuring that households are certain of their consumption…We are not going to ease up on our work”.
The NWC Instrumentation and Meters Laboratory is the first calibration laboratory in Jamaica to be accredited by the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard, the globally accepted standard used to confirm the technical competence of testing and calibration laboratories.
“I am sure that as we get ISO certification accreditation for other parts of this utility it will communicate to citizens that the utility is being run well, that the workers are performing at the best level in the world, and that we are buying and investing in the equipment that is in line with best practice”, affirmed Minister Samuda.
The NWC Instrumentation and Meters Laboratory is the second calibration laboratory to be accredited by JANAAC in the Caribbean region.
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