Mandalay Region increases water charges and scales up access

Source: mmtimes

Date: 5 Jan, 2018

​Eight thousand water meters will be installed free of charge in Pyigyitagun township with a total of US$20 million funding from Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA), according to Mandalay City Development Committee(MCDC). The committee will also increase the water charges in the region significantly.

JICA's $20 million has been used for the purchase of pipes, wells, tanks, pumps and water meters. The project will eventually cover 30pm of Pyigyitagun township, providing access to potable water for 60,000 households in five wards- Ga ward, Gagyi ward, Nga ward, Thin Pan Kone ward and Ngwe Taw Kyi ward.

"The water can be distributed in around July. Some people did not apply for the project because they did not have the details or they thought it'd cost a lot. The fact is that we will install the meters free of charge. It can cost K50,000 for a water meter and there could be additional expenses, depending on the location and length of the pipes required. 

"We will advertise in public in a newspaper in Mandalay," the water department of the MCDC stated on January 3. 

As an example, the authourities will dig three wells in Tampawati ward and water will be distributed from the tank which can hold up to 650,000 gallons of water. The authority plans to improve municipal services by improving the water quality and settling up wastewater treatment plants via a $60 million loan from the Asian Development Bank(ADB). It will use French Development Agency's (AFD's) loan of $40 million, ADB's aid of $4 million, the EU's aid of 8 million euro and AFD's aid of 1 million euro to cover 90pm of the households in four townships. It will also use the AFD's 1.5 million euro aid for water distribution in Amarapura township and JICA's $20 million aid to provide water access to 30pc in Pyigyitagun township.

The water distribution program aims to provide access to potable water for 90pc of the population (more than 800,000 people) in four townships in Mandalay Region.

Rate Charges

As the MCDC runs a lot of K3,700 million every year in water supply, the rates have been increased from K85 to K200 per unit (220 gallons) for households and from K110 to K260 per unit for businesses. 

Similarly, the rate for domestic factories has been raised from K440 to K660 per unit while the rate for foreign-owned factories has been changed from K880 K1,100 per unit. 

New rates of the water bills are charged once every three months. 

The bill rate for moat water is fixed and depends on the size of the pipes. The current rate of K1,500 has been increased to K4,000 for the smallest 0.5-inch pipe; the rate for the biggest 8-inch pipe is up from K50,000 to K70,000. 

Link to source article (if applicable): http://www.thewateragency.com