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Schools owe Rs. 1 bn water bill arrears

20 Oct 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake   A total of Rs. 1 billion worth of arrears pertaining to unpaid water bills has to be collected from schools islandwide, according to the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB).  Speaking to The Morning, NWSDB Deputy General Manager Piyal Pathmanatha said that they had not charged schools for the water supply since 1988 due to a Cabinet paper, and that it was the duty of the Treasury to make the relevant payments. However, these payments have not been received from the Treasury since 2015. Due to this reason, the NWSDB has decided to obtain the payments for these water bills from the relevant schools in order to reduce waste, Pathmanatha said, adding that water waste was high in schools, and that therefore, they are required to limit their consumption. “We are allowing schools to consume 4,000 litres for only Rs. 450; if this was for domestic use, the total cost would have been Rs. 12,000. We are unable to continue this, and we are planning to submit a Cabinet paper with the Ministry of Education that allows us to charge half of the payment from the school development committee, and the other half from the Treasury.” Meanwhile, the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) has opposed this decision, and said that many schools have been served water bills, while the water supply to certain schools has been disconnected.  “The NWSDB has given written notices to the principals of the schools regarding the charging of water bills, and the same officers have also issued final notices related to the suspension of the water supply.” The relevant announcements state that 1,500 water supply connections have been provided to Government schools so far, for which about 470,000 cubic metres of water are to be provided per month. Around Rs. 26 million is to be spent for this, and around Rs. 12 million should be paid by the schools under the subsidised fees, the union said.


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