Water charges have shot up in Olhão in an attempt to stem losses from the municipal company AmbiOlhão which runs the leaking service.
Water, sanitation and waste charges also are on the move as Olhão mayor António Pina aims to reduce the annual subsidy paid by ratepayers to water users of €2.2 million.
Leaning on recommendations from the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services (ERSAR) that there should be a better balance between the prices charged in each municipality, the mayor has raised charges and hopes the ESAR guidelines will protect him from adverse comment. This is unlikely to happen.
Mayor António Pina said the rises will help the municipality halve the annual €2.2 million that the council spends to subsidise water customers.
"Despite this increase, it is still inadequate. The council has had to subsidise the tariff, until this price rise, by €2.2 million a year which, as I think everyone understands, is unsustainable," according to Pina who added that this annual subsidy has been going on since 2012.
"What we have done is a small step towards the sustainability of the system," said Pina, adding that the 2015 increase is not designed to cover the whole €2.2 million shortfall.
On the plus side, the council water company aims to magic up €10 million in investment for the year to make the distribution system more efficient.
"With this tariff increase we will have available a range of investments which will make the water network more efficient by substantially reducing distribution losses," which the mayor says are running at 42%.
This investment money of course does not exist, nor will it come from water tariff revenue but is expected by the optimistic mayor to come from EC funds, in which case it is unlikely to arrive in 2015, if at all.
One of the possible problems passed on from mayor to mayor in Olhão, if true, could resolve the income side of the business in one move.
Well informed local social media comment has suggested that the number of water meters in the city is many thousands lower that the number of households receiving water.
Whether this is a legacy from a previous socialist agenda, a convenient oversight, or a vote winning formula may never be known but if true, the mayor has the answer to funding at his fingertips if he ensures those that receive water actually are being charged for it.
Another of the water company’s dirty secrets is the continued flow of waste water into the Ria Formosa which is being polluted on an almost daily basis from clearly visible outflow pipes in the town. If the resolution is dependent on EU funds, the situation will continue through yet more stinking summers.
The city recently rejected the offer from Águas do Algarve to take over the Olhão water company in lieu of debt owed for supply. This would seem an ideal solution, but an ‘anti-privatisation’ argument has been used to rebuff the approach and to hide the real reasons for AmbiOlhão's resistance to being taken over.
Comments
The reported percentage may be artifically high to cover up for the free water distributed to some lucky households....
It seems that one of the answers is to charge more for water; another is to charge everyone who receives water; and a third is to eliminate the losses. It would not take an accounting genius to project savings into the future from each of these moves, enough perhaps to acquire enough funding for the necessary work.
I do not understand why, in the Ria Formosa in particular, it is possible for a water company to discharge sewage without being prosecuted.