By Angelos Anastasiou
A MAN in Limassol was shocked last month after receiving his water bill for the months of November to January, which said he had to pay the exorbitant amount of €11,151.51 for a tiny apartment.
Even though the man lives in a one-bedroom flat, his recorded water consumption appeared to be nearly 4,000 cubic metres over three months, when average household use is estimated at 200 cubic metres a year. There are 1,000 litres in a cubic metre.
The perplexed consumer phoned the Limassol water board’s customer services to enquire, only to be shunned by officers who told him that his bill was correct and should be paid.
Following several calls to the water board, and growing increasingly irate from getting put on hold and bounced from one department to another, the man was exasperated when he realised that no one would look into his complaint.
“I finally got hold of the manager and with a very bad attitude told me it’s not their problem and if not paid they will cut my water off”, he said.
Predictably, the man insisted on refusing to pay and continued his quest for someone who would help him out, threatening to go public – or take the legal route – if his matter wasn’t looked into.
His perseverance paid off when he was finally able to reach the head of the Limassol water board, Sokratis Metaxas, who looked into the issue and was able to write off the man’s outstanding amount “with the click of a mouse.”
Metaxas explained that the issue came up following a clerical error during the transfer of Yermasoyia’s water supply to the wider Limassol water board last year.
“During the transfer, a lower meter reading was transcribed for this man’s home, which meant that when the actual reading was obtained a huge discrepancy occurred, resulting in his unnaturally high bill,” he said.
Once Metaxas identified the error, correcting it was as simple as the click of a mouse.
Despite his assertion that no further similar incidents are likely to be faced by unsuspecting consumers, he did warn that unnaturally high water bills are more often than not owed to factors other than clerical errors.
“We would advise customers who feel their water bill is unnaturally high to contact us immediately, as most often this would be due to leaks or water theft,” he explained.
