Reader’s mail from Bibhas Neogi …….
Charges for water in Kyrenia area – As far as I am aware there was no consultation with the users about the likely charges that would be made once water from Turkey comes to the TRNC. It is good that now there will be no rationing during summer months but an average household uses at least ten tonnes of water a month.
Based on the old charging regime the monthly bill would have been 27TL for standing charges including up to10 tonnes of water. Now the same 10 tonnes plus revised standing charges of 12TL comes to 72TL because each tonne is charged starting at 5TL per tonne and then according to a gradually rising scale.
It is true that during winter months water usage would be lower but even with, say, 5 tonnes per month, the charges would be about 40 TL. So whereas in the old system albeit water supply was restricted during summer months, one would have paid 324TL a year whereas now the bill for 4 winter months and 8 summer months will be 4×40 + 8×72 = 736TL. This is 230% increase! Can this be justified? Who is making money at the expense of ordinary TRNC folks? I would rather switch off Turkish water and revert to the old system even when it means hardship during summer months.
I wonder how the locals are bearing this cost as it is quite high together with higher electricity cost.
Editor’s comment:
Thank you for your comment and due to our weakness with the Turkish language we are not able to monitor all of the various publications to be aware of all of the facts.
Our understanding is that the Turkish water being brought to Northern Cyprus needed massive investment from Turkey and all of the infrastructure is now in place.
What we are now seeing is localised installation of water pipes and power cables under the contracts being placed by the local municipalities so perhaps this cost factor being paid by them needs to be taken into account.
As far as Girne Belediyesi is concerned, the monthly bill includes other charges such as street lighting and street cleaning etc. and this also needs to be taken into account if the actual bill total is being questioned.
Noting the huge amount of work being carried out by the Girne Municipality to restore our roads following the laying of pipes etc. the costs have to be covered from various sources, including the water charges. We feel this is a small price to pay for much needed water and good roads.
At 736TL per year for water, street lighting, road repairs, etc. works out at £163 at the exchange rate of 4.5TL to the pound.
To me that seems pretty reasonable taking in to consideration there will be no water shortage in the TRNC again. If the country wants massive investment like the water pipeline from Turkey and no more water shortage, then we have got to pay for it.
The costs would be far higher in the UK. As far as I understand there is no “Council Tax” here like the UK. Who pays for the police, rubbish collection, education, here?
I would be interested in other peoples comments and opinions.
Thank you Richard for highlighting other cost factors that need to be paid for
What do you mean by no council tax? I know of people who thought that and when they came to sell discovered that there was an outstanding balance of 10 years’ council tax plus interest to be settled.
There has always been “property tax” and if people did not pay this of course they would have to pay the arrears. The people who you are mentioning probably have not had their properties registered correctly i.e. not parcelised, or no kocan issued etc. Personally, I received a bill every year, however, that has now stopped and it is up to the individual to pay by the required date.
I am talking about fully registered property with deed etc
Your last sentence described the circumstances. The tax by whatever name is due even though you may not be aware of it.
I don’t live in Girne, but in Dipkarpaz we now apparently are getting half Turkish half Karpaz water and we are now on every other day rations. On top of it, when there is a break etc in any of the equipment, your water can be filthy for some gallons, but you still pay for al. I am on a war path about this – see what they will say next week. Apparently the man responsible for the water will come and see us.
Richard – you are wrong that there is no ‘Council tax’ !! Nothing like as much as in England – One year here is the same as 1 month in England.
Health care( community health centre and nurse) as well as the rubbish collection are on the water bill!!!
Im surprised of the figures. Once i was told that today we pay 11 TL per ton and the turkish drinkable water will just be 4 TL per ton.
Lets see what your prices are quoted on, a Municipality invoice perhaps.
We paid just over 5TL per ton on the recent Girne Municipality invoice.
We have a continuing struggle with the Essentepe Municipality who want to charge 5247 TL to supply a smart meter and connect to Turkish water despite the fact that no work has been started on the infrastructure. It is suspected that the monies gathered to date have been diverted to other projects and the Ombudsman’s office is investigating the whole issue. So whilst we understand that some municipalities have completed the infrastructure others have not
I only heard a discussion about this. A person from Esentepe mentioned the figures about the watercosts. I had to check my invoices and see that my cost is 3,57 GBP / ton.
I understand there are other charges such as street lighting and street cleaning etc. But weren’t these included in the old rates? They may go up in line with inflation but additional work of pipe laying and electricity cables (presumably to take advantage of trenches being dug out for the pipes) should be part of the scheme to supply water and the business case for it established based on the increased distribution network and prices that the consumers have to pay for the convenience of having water guaranteed through the summer months.
My question is that whether a 230% increase in one go is justifiable and whether this increase has put a heavy burden on the local TRNC population. Expats and foreigners like me can afford to pay the higher charges but is it a justifiable increase? I think it is unjust as no consultation had taken place, as far as I was aware, and whether the locals were prepared to pay such high price for water. The authorities, it seems me, have taken a unilateral decision without considering the effect of hiking prices to such an extent.
Technically Turkish water project is a very commendable engineering achievement but as a business case,this project could not have been justified had the high charges that are required to be paid were properly evaluated.
Alternative scheme such as desalination of sea water using electricity generated from solar and wind power would probably have been cheaper.