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Mombasa residents pay higher water bills as rates rise by up to 90 per cent
Water companies in five counties owe the Coast Water Services Board Sh1 billion. FILE PHOTO |
Mombasa residents will start paying higher water bills from Thursday after the regulator approved and gazetted new tariffs effecting increases of up to 90 per cent.
Residents of Mombasa Island, West and North Mainland, and Likoni will have to dig deeper into their pockets after the Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company’s (MWSSC) application for the increase was approved.
The increase in the tariffs is expected to raise the costs of doing business in the region as well as affect domestic consumers who are already dealing with strained budgets.
The new tariffs approved by the Coast Water Services Board (CWSB) will be in place until December 2014 when another review is scheduled.
“... notice is given to customers in all the aforementioned areas that after 30 days of publication of this notice the water service tariff in the mentioned areas shall be as follows...,” said James Thubu, the CWSB chief executive, through the latest Kenya Gazette.
Customers who use between zero and six cubic metres of water per month will pay a flat rate of Sh400, up from Sh265, a 51 per cent raise.
Those who use between six and 20 units will pay Sh78 for each unit, a 77 per cent increase from Sh44, while those using between 21 units and 50 units will pay Sh90 per unit, up from Sh53.
Consumers using up to 600 cubic metres of water per month are expected to pay Sh90 per unit, while those who use over 1,200 cubic metres will pay Sh100 per unit.
Learning institutions have not been spared either. Schools are set to have their billing schemes double, with those using up to 600m3 of water per month parting with Sh80 per unit and those using up to 1,200 units paying Sh100.
Those using over 1,200 units will pay Sh230 for each unit. Mr James Mureu, the chairman of the Mombasa Chamber of Commerce and a director of MWSSC in a recent interview with the Business Daily said that the increment was “justified”.
“The water company has not increased water tariffs since 2008, this has led to a severe strain on the infrastructure and efficiency in water delivery to Coastal residents,” said Mr Mureu.
With the review, the Mombasa utility firm expects to grow its revenues from Sh834 million in the last financial year to Sh1.26 billion this fiscal year and Sh1.35 billion in the 2013/2014 budget.
The company also expects costs to grow from the current Sh942 million to Sh1.32 billion in two years, a 30 per cent increase.
Years of depressed investment in the sector in line with population increase in urban areas across the country, has seen water demand outstrip supply.
A Water Impact report by Wasreb indicates that the number of connections in Mombasa is 65,688, serving 708,054 residents against a demand of 976,945.
This has seen many residents resort to buying water from vendors for their domestic use.
Water tariff reviews are categorised into three; regular adjustments like the ones proposed in Mombasa; extraordinary adjustments (usually on special request); and automatic adjustments (which take effect automatically every 12 months after approval from the regulator).
In 2010, the Water and Irrigation Development Ministry said that only 22 out of Kenya’s 120 water companies met their expenditure budgets.
