Massive hike in water tariff irks consumers

WASA has raised charges by 175pc and 500pc for domestic, commercial consumers

RAWALPINDI:

Citing the drastic surge in electricity tariffs and the prices of petroleum products, the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has announced a massive increase in water supply and sewerage charges for its customers in five major cities of Punjab, including Rawalpindi.

The monthly charges for water supply and sewerage services have been raised by 175 per cent for residential and 500 per cent for commercial consumers.

The inflation-hit citizens of the garrison city were shocked to receive the newly-issued monthly bills for water supply and sewerage services with the revised rates.

According to sources, the Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department (HUD & PHED) has immediately implemented the new tariff in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan through WASA by issuing a notification.

As per the implementation of WASA’s new tariff on residential users of water supply and sewerage services, Rs350 per month has been set for residents of houses up to three marlas, Rs500 for three to five marlas, Rs2,000 for seven to 10 marlas, Rs2,500 for 10 to 15 marlas, Rs4,000 for 15 to 20 marlas, Rs5,000 for 20 to 40 marlas and Rs6,000 for houses constructed on more than 40 marlas of land.

On the other hand, the WASA has also increased the monthly bill of water supply and sewerage charges for its commercial customers by 500 per cent which has severely affected the already beleaguered businesses.

As per the category made by WASA for commercial consumers, the commercial consumers who fall in A1-category will have to pay a monthly bill of Rs1,000, category A will pay Rs3,258, category B will pay Rs5,345, category C will pay Rs7,435, category D will pay Rs10,455, category E will pay Rs13,478, category F will pay Rs19,518, category G will pay Rs25,500 and the commercial consumers falling in category H will pay Rs31,603 per month.

Sources said that domestic and commercial consumers have strongly protested the recently issued inflated bills by WASA.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Muhammad Akbar, Arshad Javed, Ikram and Bashir Ahmed said: “The inflation had already made our lives difficult, now our lives have been made miserable by increasing the drinking water and sewage charges”. They demanded the caretaker government give relief to the people.

On the other hand, informed sources in WASA Rawalpindi told The Express Tribune that the water supply and sewage tariff had not been increased since 2009 when WASA used to get per unit of electricity for just Rs6 whereas the same has now reached nearly Rs60.

They said the authority used to generate a revenue of Rs6 to 7 million from its tube wells but now it has to pay Rs140 million in respect of the electricity bill for the tube wells and filtration plants whereas three marlas and five marlas houses are still being given a subsidy of Rs368 and Rs438 respectively in their water bills.

They added that if the monthly charges of water supply and sewerage services were not increased, five provincial departments of WASA, including Rawalpindi, would become dysfunctional.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2023.