Chisinau Mayor demands re-calculation of water bills for last month

The Chisinau consumers, the water meters of which do not correspond to the technical requirements established by the supplier, will have to pay for the difference between the water volume recorded by their meter and the block’s meter. This is provided in the new regulation of water supply in the Chisinau municipality, approved of by the Municipal Council (CMC) on March 25. The difference has already been mirrored in the bills for April, what rose the dissatisfaction of some consumers. The management of Apa-Canal Chisinau” (ACC) however maintains this is the only way to stop failing the municipal enterprises managing the living blocks, and consequently SA Apa-Canal Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. The new regulation offers the consumers the possibility to conclude direct contracts with ACC. However this is possible only after ACC gets endorsed the type of the contract by the Standardization and Metrology Service, and the CMC will establish a clear tariff for such services. The consumers are free to give up their water meters. In this case their water consumption will be calculated according to norms. “To make the citizen pay the difference of the volume means sabotaging the situation of supplying the water in Chisinau”, said mayor Dorin Chirtoaca at the City Hall’s meeting on Monday. In response, Constantin Becciev , the ACC manager, said the respective regulation passed by the CMC in March 2008, was developed in 2007 and there was enough time to check up the figures. Dorin Chirtoaca reproached the ACC manager he had not yet developed the type-contract to set up the meters. The mayor has said that since ACC is a monopoly it should come up with concrete solutions, the best for consumers. Present at the sitting, the AMN councilor and the president of the Utilities and environment commission, Oleg Cernei, said the CMC decision was a political one and voted unanimously by the CMC, and the general mayor has no competence to modify and to adjust a decision voted by the CMC.