DHAKA : REHAB leaders held a meeting with WASA Managing Director Shahjahan Mia regarding stopping harassment of WASA water bills in under-construction buildings and determining construction tariffs. The meeting was held at the Karwan Bazar WASA office at noon, June 21, according to a press release.
A delegation from REHAB led by REHAB President Md. Wahiduzzaman participated in the meeting. REHAB Senior Vice President Liaquat Ali Bhuiyan, Vice President Engineer Abdul Latif and Director Md. Ayub Ali were present in the delegation. The following 5 issues were discussed in the meeting. 1. WASA bill has two tariffs, namely residential and commercial. Since no tariff is fixed for construction work, the bill has to be paid as commercial in under- construction projects, but the water usage of under-construction projects and the usage of commercial establishments are not the same.
Request is made to fix a rate between residential and commercial tariffs for under-construction projects. 2. There is no sewerage line in the vacant plot during construction and the sewerage line is disconnected during the construction of a new building by demolishing the old structure and making temporary toilets during that time and construction work is carried out. In these cases where there is no opportunity for the used water to enter the sewerage line, WASA has to pay the bill at double the rate even though it does not use the sewerage during construction, which is not reasonable. It is demanded to take measures to issue bills excluding sewerage for under-construction projects. 3. When a residential house is demolished and construction work is started, WASA authorities automatically issue bills at commercial rates according to the meter reading, but if residential use is started after the construction work is completed, residential bills are not automatically issued. In this case, when a resident applies for a transfer, the customer is harassed by billing per square foot based on the roof size and demands illegal benefits and if the said demand is not met, they are forced to pay the bill as a commercial bill month after month, which is not reasonable in any way. Therefore, it is requested to cancel the issue of billing per square foot based on the roof size of the building after the completion of the construction work. 4. Currently, the meters supplied by the WASA authority are of very poor quality. The meter display gets damaged within 06 months of these low-quality meters and some unscrupulous reading men take advantage of this and issue bills by showing low readings in exchange for some unethical benefits and the government is being harmed as well as the customers are being greatly harmed by this. Therefore, it is requested to take necessary action in this regard. 5. Even though the Capital Development Authority installs submersible pumps in all the areas where there is no WASA line, the WASA authority issues large bills and forces the customer to pay the said bills. Since there is no WASA line here, it is not reasonable to issue such bills in any way. Therefore, it is requested to issue instructions not to issue WASA bills in all the areas where there is no WASA line. In the meeting, WASA MD listened to the demands of REHAB attentively and said that the demands of REHAB will be put on the agenda in the next WASA board meeting. He promised that if there are any other demands apart from these, a senior WASA official will discuss the issues with a representative of REHAB and resolve them.
