15 November 2009
The Ajman Sewerage (Private) Company Ltd (ASCL) has defended its threat to cut electricity to defaulting tenants as a last resort to avoid penalising those residents who pay service charges regularly.
"As responsible citizens, many property owners have paid connection fees. Many tenants are giving service charges regularly. Within three years we have connected about 83,000 properties to the network," the company's General Manager Oliver Crasson said, in justification of the move, reacting to a previous Emirates Business report about ASCL's ultimatum.
"We are a private company and there is no government subsidy. The company handles 50 million litres of sewerage every day. About 800 waste water tankers out of a total 1,000 tankers in Ajman are now phased out," he said.
Part of the connection fees from property owners was used to construct about 300km of pipeline, 22 pumping stations and a big sewerage treatment plant with a total investment of Dh800 million.
"As responsible citizens property owners have to pay connection fees. The Ruler of Ajman has set a noble example by paying the connection fees for all his properties. The project work has annoyed and disturbed some people," Crasson said.
"After the properties were connected to the sewerage network, the new service is used by about 250,000 people who are beneficiaries of the project," he added.
Earlier, property owners used to pay tanker lorries for sewerage services. Now tenants have to pay sewerage charges, a system that annoyed some people. It is a project to improve public hygiene standard and recycled water from the new system will be used for greening the emirate.
Other public utility service providers such as etisalat and Federal Electricity and Water Authority also disconnect the facility from tenant's property in case of a default. "In case of sewerage services provided by ASCL, we cannot disconnect the facility for just one or two tenants in an entire building," said Crasson.
"By disconnecting electricity from the tenant's property, we are penalising only the defaulters and not all those living in the same building."
In case of repeat defaults, ASCL gives a seven-day payment notice through sewerage tariff office in Ajman Municipality. He said many tenants have paid their pending bills following the ultimatum.
Recently, international credit rating agency Moody's downgraded the rating for a $100 million (Dh367m) loan. "Moodys have downgraded everybody in the region including Ajman Sewerage. They are reviewing the rating every three months," he said.
ASCL is going ahead with the expansion of the sewerage network to areas not covered in the original plan.
The Ajman Sewerage (Private) Company Ltd (ASCL) has defended its threat to cut electricity to defaulting tenants as a last resort to avoid penalising those residents who pay service charges regularly.
"As responsible citizens, many property owners have paid connection fees. Many tenants are giving service charges regularly. Within three years we have connected about 83,000 properties to the network," the company's General Manager Oliver Crasson said, in justification of the move, reacting to a previous Emirates Business report about ASCL's ultimatum.
"We are a private company and there is no government subsidy. The company handles 50 million litres of sewerage every day. About 800 waste water tankers out of a total 1,000 tankers in Ajman are now phased out," he said.
Part of the connection fees from property owners was used to construct about 300km of pipeline, 22 pumping stations and a big sewerage treatment plant with a total investment of Dh800 million.
"As responsible citizens property owners have to pay connection fees. The Ruler of Ajman has set a noble example by paying the connection fees for all his properties. The project work has annoyed and disturbed some people," Crasson said.
"After the properties were connected to the sewerage network, the new service is used by about 250,000 people who are beneficiaries of the project," he added.
Earlier, property owners used to pay tanker lorries for sewerage services. Now tenants have to pay sewerage charges, a system that annoyed some people. It is a project to improve public hygiene standard and recycled water from the new system will be used for greening the emirate.
Other public utility service providers such as etisalat and Federal Electricity and Water Authority also disconnect the facility from tenant's property in case of a default. "In case of sewerage services provided by ASCL, we cannot disconnect the facility for just one or two tenants in an entire building," said Crasson.
"By disconnecting electricity from the tenant's property, we are penalising only the defaulters and not all those living in the same building."
In case of repeat defaults, ASCL gives a seven-day payment notice through sewerage tariff office in Ajman Municipality. He said many tenants have paid their pending bills following the ultimatum.
Recently, international credit rating agency Moody's downgraded the rating for a $100 million (Dh367m) loan. "Moodys have downgraded everybody in the region including Ajman Sewerage. They are reviewing the rating every three months," he said.
ASCL is going ahead with the expansion of the sewerage network to areas not covered in the original plan.
By VM Satish
© Emirates Business 24/7 2009
