PSRC ruling not to affect drinking water price for Yerevan residents
YEREVAN, May 25, /ARKA/. Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) has allowed today the French-run Yerevan Jur (Yerevan Water) distribution company to raise the free for one cubic meter of drinking water for households by 14 Drams to 195 Drams The decision comes into effect from July 1. By another decision PSRC has allowed the Yerevan municipality to pay the difference until 2011 July 1. As a result the fee for Yerevan households will not change.
Yerevan Jur, which is managed by the French Generale des Eaux, had formally asked the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) on February 26 to allow it to raise the price of 1 cubic meter of drinking water from 181 drams to 206 drams from July 1. Under the law, the PSRC had to make a ruling within 90 days, but the PSRC said today that after making an inquiry into its application it found the request not grounded. It, however, allowed the company to raise the fee by 11.6 Drams, down from 33.2 Drams sought by Yerevan Jur.
Pascal Royen, chief manager of Yerevan Jur, dissatisfied by the ruling, argued that as a result the company will slow down the pace of the network’s rehabilitation that in turn will tell on its plan to improve water supplies to residents of the city.
According to him, Armenian enterprises have already slashed water consumption by 20 percent. He also said the price of drinking water in Armenia is one of the cheapest in the world. The water price already rose by 4 percent in April last year.
Generale des Eaux won an international tender announced by World Bank to take up a long-term management of the Yerevan network in 2006. It pledged to upgrade the obsolete network and ensure 24-hour water supplies to households.
The company manages also drinking water and waste water removal systems in Ararat, Aragatsotn and Kotayk provinces. It has 339,370 customers and produces 370 million cubic meters of drinking water a year managing 2,120 lm long water pipelines. ($1- 385.05 Drams).-0-
