Unpaid water bills in Fiji totalled $32million as of January 31 this year.
Fiji’s Minister for Infrastructure Jone Usamate revealed this in parliament last week during his end of week statement saying unpaid bills was one of the problems they had at present.
He said it cost $1.01 to produce one unit of water, one unit of water was equivalent to 1000 litres of water ($1.01 to produce 1 unit).
“Residential customers in Fiji are charged $0.15 per unit for the first 50 units, so it costs $1.01, they get charged $0.15 cents and then they are charged $0.43 cents for the next 51 units to 100 units and $0.83 cents for usage above that,” Mr Usamate said.
“Commercial customers pay $1.06 per unit.
“Now, WAF has had major issues getting people to pay their water bills despite constant reminders and awareness.”
Mr Usamate said residential customers owed $30.13million, commercial customers owed $830,000, and institutional ones owe $390,000.
He said WAF was now addressing this more vigorously with more awareness on social media, reminders sent through emails and SMS directly to the account holder.
“Community awareness is being carried out and payment arrangements for customers with financial difficulties are assessed and approved on a case by case basis.”
Mr Usamate said WAF had resumed disconnection since October 2021 in an effort to collect unpaid bills.
“WAF has also carried out arrears waiver for customers who are social welfare recipients or FNPF pensioners and a total of more than a thousand customers who owed $1.8 million were assisted by this waiver.”
