Exorbitant water bills up to 500 and even 1,800 euros have brought village residents in northern Greece to stage a protest outside the municipality in charge of the water bills.
The residents of the Local Community of Exalofos in Thessaloniki, which consists of two villages, Polydendri and Pentas Vryses, saw unrealistic amounts on their water bills, due to the exorbitant increases.
The bills reach from 500 to 1,800 euros, with the citizens being asked to put their hands very deep in their pockets, as the president of the Community Pelagia Chrysanthopoulou told local news website GRTIMES.gr.
“This DEVAL[municipality water company] increase was passed last year by the financial committee and not by the municipal council following a proposal by the Company,” said the community president adding that no one ever informed us. We did not expect increases of 333% and 1000%”
The president of the Exalofou Community described at the same time that the exorbitant amounts of 500 to 1,800 euros have put the residents in a very difficult position, since they are unable to serve them and confessed that they have already sent an urgent document to the competent services “so that there is compliance of the pricing policy based on what the Council of State defines.
The increase in water tariffs of DEVAL seems to have had a catalytic effect on a debt of the Company, amounting to 4,500,000 euros to the Public Power company, Chrysanthopoulou stressed.
She added, though, that the Interior Ministry decided to write off the debts of 38 Municipal Water Supply Companies,including ours. This eliminates another important reason why DEVAL decided to proceed with increases of 333% on the small scale and 1,000% on the large scale.
Protesting locals described the bills as “paranoid.”
The abusive increase in the price of the cubic from 333.33 up to 1000% in the price scale. Abusive because the price scale increases start at 333.33% (from 0.12 cents to 0.40 cents) and reach 1000% (from 0.25 cents to 2.5 euro!).
The calculation per semester or year, in which case the citizen is always charged with the highest possible price, since it increases the level of the scale.
At the protest on Tuesday, locals asked the mayor of Lagadas, Yiannis Tahmatzidis, to reduce the water supply pricing, restore the tariff scale, issue the bills quarterly, maintain the sewerage fee at 35%, as before and to immediately proceed with the maintenance and proper operation. of biological cleaning in the area.
On his part, Tahmatzidis described his reactions as “justified”, explaining that “the inflated accounts are due to the fact that now the counting by DEVAL is done normally, which was not the case with the previous administrations, so the accounts also concerned only the fixed fee.”