The Public Services Regulatory Commission ended the monitoring conducted on the water-supply system of Yerevan last week.
The commission was conducting monitoring in order to find out whether the volumes of water-supply in Yerevan have decreased or not. Let us recall that on February 27, the “Yerevan Water” company had filed an application to the commission with the purpose of raising one cubic meter of water from 172.8 drams to 181.8 drams, in other drams, nine drams. The company had explained the reason for the increase by the reduction of water-supply volumes. The commission then decided to check to see if there really was a reduction of water-supply. They checked and found out that the water-consuming volumes have not reduced that much to raise the price by 9 drams. President of the Union of Consumers Armen Poghosyan, who was present during the discussions on that topic, informed “168 Hours” that the commission intends to partially approve the proposal of the company by raising the water price by four drams instead of nine. According to Mr. Poghosyan, the commission will probably hold a session on May 16 to fix the new prices. But the president of the Union of Consumers does not agree with the decision of the commission because in his opinion, “Yerevan Water” is not doing everything it can to increase the volumes of water-supply.
“We proposed to the company to change the schedule of water-supply and give water in the evening hours,” says Poghosyan. “Not everybody is at home in the morning or daytime and doesn’t use that much water. As you know, the price for electricity for those who have two-digit meters is 10 drams cheaper, and I am certain that most of our citizens will change their hours for using hot water to later. Thus, the volumes of water-supply will reduce. We propose increasing the hours of water-supply.”
However, expert of the Union of Consumers considers it strange that citizens of Yerevan consumed nearly 1.1 million cubic meters of water in the months of October, November and December of 2006, and 2.1 million cubic meters in January 2007. How come there was such a sharp difference, especially when January is a winter month, and it would be logical if the volumes of water-supply were to decrease instead of increasing. The company correspondents responded that “Nairit” had increased the volumes.
“Did they increase it that much?” says the expert in surprise. “Even if it is that much, then it is not that good because that factory consumes drinking water for some technologies.”
In any case, the defenders of consumer interests don’t agree with the increase of the water price for the reduction of consumed volumes. They believe that the company is doing everything it can to increase consumed volumes. The commission and other water-supplying institutions don’t have much control over that issue.