What's the point of paying for water?
The agglomeration community of South Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe announced "the cancellation of all unpaid bills relating to the water and sanitation consumption of individuals", i.e. a slate of 13.16 million euros for the municipalities of the former water authority.
It must be said that the absence of payment of water bills seems to be a well-known phenomenon.
“Since 2020, 29.75 million euros in bills will have been canceled for users,” said the president of the agglomeration community Thierry Abelli.
He recalled that a first round of cancellation of 16.59 million euros had already taken place between 2020 and 2023.
Insecurity of individuals and irregularities in invoicing
These cancellations only affect individuals.
The invoices “emanating from companies and public entities, which represent around 10 million euros”, are not canceled, specified the urban community.
The reasons which pushed the agglomeration community of South Basse-Terre to draw a line under these invoices are multiple: "The precariousness of families living in the territory", but also a regulatory obligation to close the accounts despite "exemptions and deadlines obtained", and also "irregularities observed in invoicing", established by the former water authority when the meters were sometimes defective or non-existent.
“These figures are already recorded in the deficit, this will not change the financial state of the community”, however underlined Thierry Abelli while calling on individuals, while the community is already over-indebted, to “pay the bills from now on, given this considerable effort.
For years, Guadeloupe has experienced serious problems with access to drinking water, numerous cuts, failures in sanitation, but also problems linked to the good technical and political management of its water networks, distributed in several public authorities, creating numerous refusals to pay bills.
In September 2021, the law imposed on the territory a common management, the Joint Syndicate for Water and Sanitation Management of Guadeloupe (SMGEAG).