Sanitary engineer Julio Santos-Cayado alerts that the governmental Corporacion del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santo Domingo (CAASD) may be billing consumers for air in addition to water. The CAASD has installed 35,000 water meters to date and has announced plans to install 105,000 more to discourage the wasteful consumption of water. Santos-Cayado says that while the purpose of rationalizing the use of water is commendable, the plumbing system of Santo Domingo is not adequately equipped for the meters being installed. In an item published today in the opinion section of the Listin Diario, Santos-Cayado explains that the pipes of Santo Domingo are full of air, not water, throughout most of the day. He points out that this can be readily observed, as water flows only during certain hours of the day into the cisterns that are commonly used in households throughout the city to accumulate and store water for later use.
He explains that the water meters that are being installed should only be used for pipe systems that operate hydraulically, that is, for those that are pressure-filled with water around the clock. He believes that the CAASD should have installed a different type of meter that would allow the air to be purged prior to the water passing through the reading devices.
It is his fear that once the new system is implemented there will be countless complaints when Dominicans start to receive what he called spine-chilling bills. In an attempt to allay these fears CAASD director Julio Suero Marranzini has said that the tariffs would not increase. But Santos-Cayado says that when consumers have to start paying for air instead of water the decision of the administration to install the unsuitable meters will have socio-economic consequences that are not in the best interests of the government at this time.
For more information, see http://consumidordom.com/articulos/contadoresagua.htm
