Better services should accompany new power and water tariffs

One of my favorite things to hate is bad service that you can’t even ditch, I am sure, you too; unfortunately, for months now, we have been getting plenty of that from our newly renamed Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC) and Rwanda Energy Group (REG). First, I should confess that for the past couple of days, I haven’t had a satisfactorily enjoyable shower moment, yeah, that’s how Wasac’s water supply sucks. See, there has been no water raining down from my shower pump so I have had to contend with using ‘medieval’ methods, the basin, first, filling it to the brim with water in a jerrycan bought from the vendor at Rwf400. Then for 41 times, bending as low as my back could allow to fetch it up with my curved palms before splashing it carefully on various parts of the body, a rigorous exercise if you’re familiar with the drill. Regard me here as the ‘frog’ seen jumping across the busy street in broad day light, surely, the swamp must be on fire, blimey! The place I rent has a large water tank able to serve us for close to three weeks so by the time I notice there’s no water, it would have been gone for at least two weeks; that’s when the Gikondo upper nostalgia sets in, I left the place in protest of its water problems. I live in Niboye a generally well supplied place so if am complaining it means the swamp indeed must be on fire. It’s worse for one of my workmates who lives in Kimironko area, for months now, he’s had to cultivate it in his daily expenditure plans to leave the house help with Rwf1,500 for water; multiply that by at least 25 days and you’re Rwf30,000 shy of a full car-fuel tank! Name changing hasn’t done us any good, has it? No. Clearly, the ghosts of former EWSA are still haunting the newly created water and electricity agencies. And if what I am averring about is news to you, please kindly tell me where you live so I shift immediately. Three months ago, I interviewed Mr. James Sano, Wasac’s Managing Director, yesterday, I briefly played the recording of him making a lot of promises, in one of them, he was telling me water scarcity in Kigali would be history soon, to be exact, by August. Well, here we’re. But inconsistent water supply aside, tell me, when was the last time you watched a full news bulletin without being interrupted by electricity blinks? For some weeks now, I have noticed this behavior in electricity supply; you can’t call it load shading, no, it’s something else. How would you describe a situation where power goes and comes back, almost instantly, in most cases, just after a minute or less and this happens like five times within an hour? With these satellite decoders, it takes about five minutes for it to scan and re-start which costs you an entire news bulletin. It happened a week ago as I watched a very interesting markets analysis on Bloomberg channel. I got so mad that I telephoned REG MD Jean-Bosco Mugiraneza; like the case most times, he didn’t pick up so I sent him a message explaining exactly my source of frustration. He responded immediately, with a terse line, ‘give me your location’ which I did. It’s been a few days now and I haven’t experienced the annoying blinks; they’re now longer, almost fit to be described as load shading. It’s against this backdrop that the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) came out on Thursday not to apologise for the annoying services but to instead announce an increase in the existing tariffs for both water and electricity. Effective September 1, to stay connected to both unsteady services, tariffs for consumers of low voltage electricity will increase by 35 percent to Rwf182 per kilowatt; this category includes everyone with electricity at home. Industrial tariffs were unchanged at Rwf126; so where electricity is a factor of production, one pays less but where it’s a basic necessity, as a source of energy in homes, you pay more. As for water, a 19 percent tariff hike was announced effective next month. Many people I have talked to about the new tariffs told me they’re less concerned with the price but more interested in knowing whether the increment will also lead to reliable service for both utilities. I certainly concur because as you would, am sure, agree, life in urban domiciles literally stops when there’s no water or power supply; on one hand, you can’t flush the toilet while on the other, perishable foods are wasting away in the fridge for lack of electricity.

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Better services should accompany new power and water tariffs