Water bill relief: PPWSA waives fees for Red Zoned workers, students
A building with units rented out by workers at a Red Zone in Veng Sreng Blvd, Meanchey district. KT/Siv Channa
The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) is waiving water fees for workers and students living in rented houses in Red Zones in Phnom Penh and Kandal province’s Takhmao city.
Director general of PPWSA Sim Sitha said on Saturday: “In response to a call by the Prime Minister, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority will help ease the burden by helping to waive the water fees for three months – March to May – for workers and students living in rented homes in Red Zones.”
Sitha stressed that the waiver is only applicable for workers and students living in rented homes in Red Zones in Phnom Penh and Kandal province’s Takhmao city.
PPWSA assessed that approximately 870 premises will benefit from the decision.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday called on PPSWA to consider waiving the fees to help workers who are hard pressed to make ends meet while in lockdown in Red Zones.
He also requested Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) to consider waiving electricity fees and landlords not to demand rents from the workers.
Khmer Times yesterday asked two tenants, who live in a Red Zone in Meanchey district’s Stung Meanchey commnune but declined to be named, about the water fee waiver.
One of them said: “I am a company employee living alone in a room in the Red Zone here. I am happy to hear that PPWSA will waive the water fee for three months until May because it will help me cope financially during this difficult time”.
He said he pays about $5 to $7.50 a month for water fees, but some rooms with three to four family members pay between $7.50 and about $12.50 a month.
He added that individual landlords charge different water rates according to usage. Some charge about $0.37, some about $0.50 and others about $0.62 per cubic metre which are more expensive than PPWSA.
The water authority charges between about $0.10 and $0.55 per cubic metre.
Another man living in Stung Meanchey said: “It will be doubly good, if electricity fees and rents are also waived in Red Zones.
Apart from the Premier, Phnom Penh deputy governor Nuon Pharat also called on landlords to temporarily suspend rental fees for workers if they have not yet been paid their wages or to at least reduce the rent as much as possible.
“If possible, extend the rent for one, two or three months. Please make an exception to share this difficulty with workers who are struggling in Red Zones and in other areas where they are not getting paid by their employer,” he said.
Moreover, he called on tenants to try and discuss the situation with their landlord on the basis of understanding, tolerance and finding common ground that is acceptable to all.
Nak Thy, a landlord with homes in a Red Zone in Por Senchey district, said yesterday: “After the appeal from the Prime Minister, I agreed to suspend collecting rent from the workers because some of them did not get paid by employers after the lockdown. We must help each other in this difficult time together.”
