00:00 Roughly 400 people will be hired by WASA to visit homes across the country from July 1st
00:06 as the authority rolls out its customer service improvement survey.
00:10 The exercise will allow the authority to know exactly who its customers are
00:15 and where they are located as many people who utilize the service it provides
00:20 are not on WASA's database.
00:23 Too many times people call for a truck-bund supply of water
00:27 and they are not registered as a legitimate customer of WASA.
00:33 But they are the loudest voices on social media
00:38 cursing the authority, cursing the government
00:41 and when you do the investigation you realize you can't even assist them
00:45 because they are not on the database of WASA's customers.
00:51 But the minister is seeking to assure the public that this is not a witch hunt
00:55 and says it is not directly tied to any proposed increase in water rates.
01:01 This is your opportunity to now come forward and legitimize your connection.
01:07 It has nothing to do with water rates
01:10 but of course if the RIC requires WASA to provide whatever relevant data
01:16 on customers and potential customers it puts the authority in a very good position.
01:22 He says WASA will be in a better position to service customers with the data provided.
01:28 There will be real-time information being passed to your operational control center
01:38 and you will know the customers who are going to be impacted
01:42 and that you can notify the customers in text messages, in emails,
01:48 sending specific information to certain geography whenever you have disruption on your network
01:54 so that even before customers are aware that in fact you have a disruption on your distribution system
02:02 those customers will be notified.
02:04 The survey is already available on WASA's website.
02:08 Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Fares Alrawi
02:12 is encouraging persons to cooperate with the initiative
02:16 in advancing corrupt practices like the recent water trucking racket discovery.
02:22 Because when you take $500 times $60,000 times a year
02:28 somebody is making millions of dollars for you not to get water,
02:34 for you not to get local government services,
02:38 for you to not get your drains cleared.
02:41 Minister Gonzalez confirms that they also recently uncovered
02:45 in 40 terms an illegal tank farm in the Freeport area
02:49 where people were allegedly storing large amounts of water for resale.
02:53 We have drilled three wells.
02:55 Those three wells are producing one million gallons of water.
02:58 So people have seen an opportunity to establish those very large tank farms
03:04 to tap into the wells, get the water, operate a water trucking business
03:09 and taking that water and selling it in other areas.
03:11 These things are very unfortunate and it impacts the ability of the Water and Sewage Authority
03:17 to provide the people of the country with a supply of water,
03:21 which is very unfortunate, but these matters are being investigated.
03:24 This and other so-called water rackets are being investigated,
03:28 but the minister admits it is possible the offenders may escape
03:32 with a mere slap on the wrist.
03:35 We are looking at the Water and Sewage Authority Act
03:37 to see if the act, the way it is configured, the way it was designed and drafted,
03:43 if it is sufficient to be able to respond to some of these novel practices
03:48 or unethical practices.
03:50 And if it is not, we will make the necessary amendment
03:53 to include or rather to criminalize these types of behaviors
03:59 so that our citizens can be protected.
04:01 Renassa Cutting, TV6 News.
04:04 Fox News.
04:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments