AURAS concerned at high water bills

Maputo, 3 Aug (AIM) – The chairperson of the Mozambican Water and Sanitation Authority (AURAS), Suzana Loforte, has expressed her concern at the high bills that water suppliers are demanding from their clients across the country, especially in Maputo city.

“The issue of high bills is a specific problem that has to do with the service providers billing system”, Loforte told reporters, on Tuesday, in Maputo.

The bills that the publicly-owned Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund (FIPAG) demands from its clients have always been controversial for allegedly being unfair. The price of water consumption is said to be always high and does not correspond to the real quantity of water consumed per month.

AURAS has launched a consumer complaints platform in order to reduce the number of cases.

“The issue of high bills is also a concern for the regulator”, Loforte said. “During the Maputo International Fair (Facim), we launched our consumer complaints platform in order to enable citizens to report these cases. If we look at our records, the type of complaints we receive is always the issue of high bills”.

However, Loforte said that other cases of high water bills are related to meter problems and leaks, “but the regulator’s role is to ensure that these consumers do not incur unfair charges.”

“Very soon, we’re going to launch other instruments that will allow us to assess this problem more and more, to understand where the problem lies, whether it’s in the companies‘ billing system, in the quality of the meters, or in consumers’ ignorance of the leaks that can result in this high billing”, she said.

She added that the use of pre-paid meters is one of the strategies of private water suppliers to solve the problem of water losses and high bills.

(AIM)

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