A large number of water consumers have shirked their responsibility of paying their water bills on time to the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) and the amount of money these errant consumers have defaulted is estimated to be approximately Rs.100 million.
Among the water bill defaulters are some powerful politicians, VIPs, Government institutions, leading private firms and religious places. The water supply connection of some of these water bill defaulters whose water bills have exceeded Rs.500,000 has already been disconnected, Additional General Manager (Recoveries) of the NWSDB Weerasinghe Ekanayaka told the Sunday Observer.
Ekanayaka said that legal documents have already been submitted to the Attorney General’s Department to sue more than 2000 bill defaulters. He said as a result of the water bill being increased by 70 percent, this unfortunate situation has emerged and consequently it has been rather difficult for the Board to smoothly carry out its normal operations properly for the betterment of water consumers.
The National Water Supply and Drainage Board is the principal authority which provides pure drinking water to a large segment of the country’s population and facilitates the provision of sanitation in Sri Lanka. A senior official of the NWSDB told the Sunday Observer that for all that yeoman service rendered by the Board, a large number of water consumers have shirked their responsibility of paying their bills on schedule.