DRINKING WATER TARIFF TO REMAIN UNCHANGED UNTIL JULY 1 2009
Noyan Tapan
May 16 2007
YEREVAN, MAY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Under the lease agreement signed with
Yerevan Water company, the current drinking water tariff of 172.8
drams in Yerevan will remain unchanged until July 1, 2009. Starting
from July 1, 2009, it will make 132.6 drams. The RA Public Services
Regulatory Commission made this decision on May 16 after examining
the company’s bid. To recap, under the agreement, starting from 2009,
Yerevan Water shall reduce the water tariff to 129 drams.
The bid submitted by the company proposes that in 2007, the tariff
of drinking water be raised by about 9 drams, due to a decline in
water consumption.
However, the monitoring conducted by the commission has revealed that
in 2006, Yerevan Water supplied 59.3 mln cubic meters of water, and
not 55.1 mln cubic meters as indicated in the bid. For this reason the
commission decided to increase the water tariff by 3 drams (without
VAT) and use this tariff from 2009. In the words of the commission
chairman Robert Nazarian, this will mitigate the problems of consumers.
Director of Yerevan Water company Serge Popoff said that their primary
problem is to ensure continuous water supply rather than to reduce
water losses.
At the same time he noted that water losses (currently making up 80%)
should be reduced to 55% by 2016, thanks to which 95% of the population
will have a 24-hour water supply.