GRENADA: A number of persons who received pipe borne water under the former New National Party (NNP)administration’s social program for the indigent, elderly and disabled/physically challenged persons have received letters from the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA) asking them to settle their outstanding bills within 48 hours or have their service terminated. A copy of one such letter addressed to the consumer but sent in care of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Development, Botanical Gardens, reads in part: According to our records, your account for service is past due in the amount shown below ($-----------). You are therefore advised that settlement of the past due amount must be made within forty-eight hours of receipt of this notice. Failure to do so would result in the termination of your service without further notice. Reconnection cannot be guaranteed before forty-eight hours. A reconnection fee and full repayment of the arrears will be required before the restoration of service. The amount recorded on the notices (from three of the persons who received them) range in value from $900.00 to over $1,300.00. At least three of the persons who received letters (one man in his late 80s, a woman in her late 70s and a crippled woman) claim that it is the first time they have ever received a receipt demanding payment for the service since receiving their pipe-borne water. It is believed that the bills were paid by the government under the social service program. This notice, threatening disconnection of water service to these socially disadvantaged persons, comes at a time when the level of unemployment in Grenada is increasing, the cost of living is steadily rising and scientists from the Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN), based in Barbados, are predicting severe drought conditions in the country over the next three months. The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration of Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas has come under heavy criticism from opposition parliamentarians for the way in which persons have been removed from the list of persons receiving government assistance. According to Senator Anthony Boatswain, there are persons on the list that ought to be removed, but it must be done in a careful way so as not to remove socially vulnerable persons from it.