THE Water Authority of Fiji has been ranked fourth by the Consumer Council for recurring complaints by consumers.
Council chief executive officer Premila Kumar said between January to June this year they had received 52 complaints ranging from disconnecting water supplies without notice to exorbitant bills despite periods of constant water supply disruptions.
"Majority of these complaints are of WAF overcharging consumers, disconnecting water without notice and charging a $10 reconnection fee, water not supplied on a day-to-day basis and high bills sent to consumers, not reconnecting meters on time, wrong estimation for bills, exorbitant charges for new meter connection and faulty meters," she said.
Recent complaints were of WAF's change in specifications of water tanks reticulated to their system.
Mrs Kumar said water was a basic necessity and despite its name change and restructure, WAF had yet to fully realise its importance of being provider of this need. She said consumers should only be billed for the amount of water used.
"It is unfair to bill consumers for something they have not used. Complaints lodged with the council have been referred to WAF for redress," she said.
"Consumers residing in areas with regular supply disruptions need to be vigilant and scrutinize their bills properly," she said.
She said some consumers had complained of WAF issuing estimated water bills for up to a year.
"Also consumers have complained about estimated bill to be much higher. Consumers can read the meter and give the readings to WAF who should provide a toll free phone line for this," she said.