Panorama.am
’14:43 02/06/06
HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN TO DEAL WITH WATER
Two days ago a public regulatory committee issued a
decision according to which AMD 172.8 is set per one
cubic meter for water. Consumer rights protection
organizations protest the decision saying that it is
against the rights of consumers and contradict several
international treaties and local laws. According to
Abgar Yeghoyan, Consumer Rights Protection Chairman
and Armen Poghosyan, Head of Consumer Association say
that Water Code and Orhus treaty, Poverty Alienation
Strategic Program and a number of other legal acts are
violated, in particular.
Water supply is mainly regulated by two legal acts –
Water Code and Law on Regulatory Body. According to
the latter, water tariffs are set by the public
regulatory committee whereas this price was set by the
French operator who has received the right for water
use. Neither the experts nor public organizations were
consulted on the optimal rate of water fee. However,
Water State Committee Chairman is sure that Jeneral
Dez O, the French operator, is a leading company in
the world and will meet the obligations put in front
it.
Public organizations have variously tried to receive
the copy of the contract between water state committee
and Jeneral Dez O, however, they failed to get it.
Today, they intend to apply to human rights ombudsman
with a claim against committee’s decision. The
non-profits say they do no apply to court as a first
step because they cannot afford high fees. They
connect their hopes only with round table discussions
and press conferences.
It’s interesting why the non-profits started to
protest out loud the decision only after it was
reached. The committee held a session a month ago
during which the proposed tariff was not approved.
Non-profits only sent a letter to R. Nazaryan and held
one round table well aware that they won’t give any
tangible results./Panorama.am/