Mitrovica north pays nothing for spent water

About 700 thousand euros per year, or more than 13m euros for 19 years, is estimated to be worth of spent water bills, which are not paid by residents of these municipalities.

Four municipalities: Leposaviqi, Northern Mitrovica, Zubin Potoku and Zvecani, are inhabited by Serb majority, which over the years have operated outside Kosovo's constitutional judicial system.

Hysni Feka, task leader of the tariff department at the Regulatory Authority for Water Service (ARRU), tells Radio Free Europe that over a year, over four million cubic metres of water have been sent to that section, at a price of 0.17 euros per cubic metre.

However, the price of water for a cubic meter, according to him, for consumers in the southern part, is about twice as high.

The spent water bills, according to Hysni Feka, do not reach consumers who live in that section.

The regional company BAR Mitrovica, measures water through three waterways, on a monthly basis. It reports in the ARRU, how much water has gone north. However, there is no mechanism or method for the regional water company to forward the bill to the receiver. There's no one who accepts the water bill from the water supply, says Feka.

Even some of the citizens in that section admit that they do not pay water - even according to them - to confirm what they say in the water supply - that they don't even have bills for the expenses.

One of them is Vitomir Zivovic from northern Mitrovica. He says he doesn't know who to pay his bills for water.

We didn't get anything officially. So we haven't paid until today. We would pay if we knew who to pay and get proof that we paid”, Zivkovic says.

Meanwhile, Slavica Marinkovic, citizen of Mitrovica, says he cannot remember when he paid for the last spent water:

I don't really know when I last got my water bill and I don't even know if there's a water - spending measure in the apartment where I live”.

By contrast, the Regional Company, the “Mitrovica” water pipeline, located in Shipol, is the only licensed company to carry out the drinking water supply operation and maintenance of the channeling in the Mitrovica region, which includes Serb-run municipalities.

This company is under the umbrella of the Water Services Regulatory Authority.

For the non-paid water bill, by residents of that section, the ombudsman institution last year has opened official investigation.

The ombudsman, Hilmi Jashari, tells Radio Free Europe that on this issue, he spoke more competent authorities and expects fair actions. On the contrary, he says, this institution will come up with a public position on whether it concerns human rights violations.

Disturbing, according to Jashar, in addition to bill non-paying remains the different price of water for the northern and southern parts.

If there is no action, then we, as the ombudsman's institution, will nevertheless come out with some attitude, report and concrete recommendations and evaluate whether there were violations of the law, says Jashar.

Who makes the bill?

But the dilemma remains over who made the payment of these bills for the water spent in the four northern municipalities?

Hysni Feka says the Government of Kosovo for almost every year makes subsidies to various financial sums in order to enable the company's operation.

This payment does not go away. This issue is pending. However, to enable the company's operation, the Government on a regular annual basis, but not always in the same sums, paid extra expenses for the company's continuation of the company's activities, says Feka.

But experts on economic issues say the money with which the Government of Kosovo is subsidising the regional company “Mitrovica” are taxes on Kosovo citizens.

Naim Gashi, an expert on economic issues, for Radio Free Europe, says citizens from different parts of Kosovo pay their water bills spent in the northern part.

In fact, practices that the current and water spent in the north be paid by Kosovar taxpayers, I think it is a basic injustice, which is done to Kosovo citizens and conflicts with all international conventions and standards”.

It's inequality, both social and civic, that some of the citizens pay their bills while the rest don't pay them. They undermine the state of Kosovo, and at the same time, the taxes of Kosovo citizens are paid to citizens in the north”, Gashi says.

Subvention for water spending for consumers of that part by the Government of Kosovo is considered an inappropriate choice, even for ombudsman Hilmi Jashar.

“After all, subsidies are parts derived from the country's citizens' taxes, no matter who they are. And, you know, one can't charge and another part can be considered to be supported by subsidies, because it's about the same commodity - water paid as a public service”, says Jashar.

Because of defaults and debts, water companies usually apply punitive measures in other areas, turning them off from the indebted consumer network. But that is not the case in the north.

Hysni Feka points to the fact that the problem of non-paid water bills by residents of the northern part is, according to him, political problem. It shows that the regional company “Mitrovica”, due to debts, has tried several times to separate from the water supply network residents of that section, but that policy has always intervened.

With the government's pressure on the water company, the northern part has never been removed from supply of the water supply”, Feka points out.

In addition to the failure to pay the spent water bills, residents of this section do not pay electricity bills, which account for 8m euros annually. Even in this case, the ombudsman had initiated investigations by sending the subject to court. The Court of Appeals, on the other hand, has decided that the Electric Energy Regulatory Office will suspend the decision that the current spent on that part will be billed for citizens of other regions.

Save, Z The RRE has decided since December last year that electricity bills for consumers will be account for 3.5 percent less. / REL/