PSRC RULING NOT TO AFFECT DRINKING WATER PRICE FOR YEREVAN RESIDENTS
/ARKA/
May 25, 2010
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, May 25, /ARKA/. Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory
Commission (PSRC) has allowed today the French-run Yerevan Jur (Yerevan
Water) distribution company to raise the free for one cubic meter of
drinking water for households by 14 Drams to 195 Drams The decision
comes into effect from July 1. By another decision PSRC has allowed
the Yerevan municipality to pay the difference until 2011 July 1. As
a result the fee for Yerevan households will not change.
Yerevan Jur, which is managed by the French Generale des Eaux, had
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 had to make a ruling within 90 days, but the PSRC said
today that after making an inquiry into its application it found the
request not grounded. It, however, allowed the company to raise the
fee by 11.6 Drams, down from 33.2 Drams sought by Yerevan Jur.
Pascal Royen, chief manager of Yerevan Jur, dissatisfied by the
ruling, argued that as a result the company will slow down the pace
of the network’s rehabilitation that in turn will tell on its plan
to improve water supplies to residents of the city.
According to him, Armenian enterprises have already slashed water
consumption by 20 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. It has 339,370
customers and produces 370 million cubic meters of drinking water a
year managing 2,120 lm long water pipelines. ($1- 385.05 Drams).
From: A. Papazian