YEREVAN JUR BLAMES APPLICATION FOR RAISING DRINKING WATER PRICE ON GLOBAL CRISIS
ARKA
March 22, 2010
YEREVAN, March 22, /ARKA/. Head of a French-run company managing
Yerevan’s water distribution network blamed today the application
seeking a rise of the price of drinking water in the Armenian capital
on the global economic crisis.
Speaking at a news conference, Pascal Royen, chief manager of Yerevan
Jur (Yerevan Water) company, attributed the move also to depreciation
of the Armenian dram, rise of electricity price last year and consumer
inflation.
Yerevan Jur, which is managed by the French Generale des Eaux,
formally asked the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission
(PSRC) on February 26 to allow it to raise the price of 1 cubic meter
of drinking water from 181 drams to 206 drams from July 1. Under the
law, the PSRC has to make a ruling within 90 days.
Pascal Royen said as a result of the crisis Armenian enterprise
slashed water consumption by 17 percent. He also said the price of
drinking water in Armenia is one of the cheapest in the world.
The water price already rose by 4 percent in April last year.
Generale des Eaux won an international tender announced by World
Bank to take up a long-term management of the Yerevan network in
2006. It pledged to upgrade the obsolete network and ensure 24-hour
water supplies to households.
The company manages also drinking water and waste water removal systems
in Ararat, Aragatsotn and Kotayk provinces. Yerevan Jur has 339,370
customers producing 370 million cubic meters of drinking water a year
and managing 2,120 lm long water pipelines. ($1- 404.34 Drams).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
