DUSAHNBE, April 5, Asia-Plus — Rates of drinking water in Dushanbe will not rise and remain the same, according to information from the Dushanbe mayor’s office.
According to the source, a special commission charged with the Dushanbe Anti-Monopoly Agency to study an application by the Dushanbe Vodokanal (DVK or Dushanbe’s municipal waterworks) for raising the tariffs has refused it.
“The drinking water rates have remained the same: for the public — 0.025 Somoni per one cubic meter, for the organizations funded from the budget – 0.087 Somoni per one cubic meter and for the commercial organizations – 0.25 Somoni,” the mayoral spokesman said.
In the meantime, the Dushanbe municipal waterworks has neither confirmed nor denied this information.
As it had been reported earlier, DVK in March applied to the Dushanbe Anti-Monopoly Agency with regard to the issue of raising the drinking water rates. The Dushanbe municipal waterworks intends to raise the water rates to 0.5 Somoni per one cubic meter of drinking water. The DVK leadership has justified its decision to raise the water rates by saying that they need to renew their main resources – purchase of necessary equipment for improving quality of drinking water and purchase of necessary chemicals to provide safety of the drinking water.
According to information from the Dushanbe municipal waterworks, a total debt for water consumption to DVK has amounted to more than 13.5 million Somonis as of March 1. Of this amount, more than 4 million Somonis is the public debt and the remaining is debt of the organizations and enterprises.
