UNMIK
ON AIR
By Arta Pllana
Hello and welcome ... you’re listening to UNMIK ON
AIR ...
Most Kosovo residents agree, when asked by journalists, that it is a normal duty to pay for public services. But the reality is completely different as many people don’t pay their water or electricity bills and authorities have serious headaches trying to solve this problem.
Music in and under ...
Caush Bajrushi, director of the Water Supply
Company in Pristina, explains to UNMIK ON AIR that one of the problems is that
there are numerous illegal buildings built on land that was formally rural. Now
these areas have been urbanized without any civic planning.
In addition to this, a large part of the water
supply network is too old and the level of leakage is economically
unacceptable. Furthermore, Kosovo residents are often misusing drinking water,
for example for washing the streets.
Caush Bajrushi believes that also illegal car-wash
workshops are a part of the problem as they are big consumers of running water:
Cut The ones that overspend water and without control are
car-wash services. There are hundreds of them, not only in Pristina but also in
Fusha Kosova and Kastrioti and they operate without our permission.
The old water supply network, misuse of water, illegal
connections as well as refusal of citizens to pay their bills regularly - all
of that resulted in enormous debts. Today the people in Pristina region owe
their water company some 17 million euros.
In response to this abuse the water authority undertakes an
extremely unpopular measure – disconnecting homes from the water supply
network.
Shyqri Krasniqi, chief revenue collection department
in Pristina Water Company joins one of the disconnection teams today. The crew
is out to cut off those refusing to pay.
Cut This
building owes 4750 euro. The moment it was disconnected only 164 euro were
collected. The house was actually disconnected before, but the residents
illegally reconnected themselves to the network. This means no one cared that
the obligations towards the water company were not made. So now we came here to
put in focus some things: these citizens not only did not pay the water bill
but they disregard the request of the company.
The building has 24 apartments and only 2 families
pay for their water regularly. After several warnings the Water Company sees it
as their only option to disconnect them all, including this family without
debt:
Cut I
feel terrible. I am very anxious. I feel very bad since we cannot get any
watersupply from anywhere else.
However, most of the families living in this part
of Pristina have not paid their water bills since ’99.
Cut With
clients you have to be very careful, however the financial situation of the
company is really bad, therefore we are forced to disconnect them. Several
warning letters have been sent to this address but no progress has been made so
far.
Each debt
collector has around 500 apartments and 500 houses to control - not an easy
job. Xhevat Jashari is a debt collector with Pristina Water Company :
Cut It’s
all citizens’ fault ... they have money but don’t want to pay. Yes ... there
are some who are in a very difficult economic situation ... who don’t have
money to pay. But here we have houses were the economic situation is good. And
it is not 1 or 2 years in question ... but 6 years of non-payment.
As we were
walking together with the Water Company crew, the residents gathered together
in front of a big green building. Shyqri Krasniqi, chief for revenue collection
department in Prisitna Water Company explains:
Cut This
used to be a private house, but after the war it was divided in separate
dwellings. Many families live here now and they don’t pay for their water
although they are big consumers. Debt collector visited them many times in
order to get their names, to register them with the company, so each family
could get a bill ... but the owners of the apartments don’t even want to hear
about us.
One of the houses
that owed more then 1000 euros for the past 6 years has also made an illegal
water connection. Master for hydro installation Faik Syla explains:
Cut In
this manhole there are 2 legally installed water meters, but at the same time 2
wild connections were done. It is not supposed to be this way, and only the
owner knows why he has done this.
Most of the
households disconnected today decided to pay their bills and were reconnected
to the water supply network the next day.
The Water Company
is aware that implementing this policy is not an easy task, but claims that
there is no other way for them to improve their service and secure good water supply for all residents.
With this we end
today’s program ... tomorrow we broadcast an interview with Naim Breznica,
director of a multiethnic radio station in Fush Kosove/Kosovo Polje.
Thanks for
listening to the studio of UNMIK on Air and stay tuned ...