The Provincial Water Department (DPA) authorized, through resolution, a extraordinary increase of 150% in drinking water service provided by the neighborhood council of the Melipal neighborhood, in a residential area of Bariloche.
The Andean city, the most populated in Río Negro, has the peculiarity that the drinking water service in the population that lives in the western zone is provided by the neighborhood councils that carry out their own collection and distribution system, outside the structure of Rio Negro Waters.
The Neighborhood council coverage reaches 11% of the population and they cover more than 5,100 homes and businesses; That is why each entity that provides the service manages its costs autonomously, but the rate that is passed on to users must be authorized by the DPA.
So the neighborhood council of Melipal, the neighborhood located about 4 kilometers from the Civic Centerwhich according to users has “the most expensive water in Bariloche,” requested the DPA for a rate review that the regulatory body granted in an “extraordinary” way and to be applied for a period of 180 days.
Resolution No. 494 of the DPA, recently published in the Official Gazette of the province, defined to address the request and the grounds of the Melipal neighborhood association to authorize the high rate.
According to the resolution, the neighborhood – which collects the Nahuel Huapi Lake and distributes it among its neighbors – requested that in the context of the five-year ordinary review process, which runs from 2024 to 2028, a extraordinary increase of 150% to cover the “economic gap”.
He argued the “increase in personnel costs, electrical energy, sodium hypochlorite, repairs and maintenance” that were registered and make “it necessary to consider a rate increase to recompose the economic-financial equation so as not to put the quality and continuity of the service at risk.”
The DPA used its powers and decided to grant the “temporary and exceptional” increase to “not jeopardize the conditions of provision of this essential public service.”
Users of the Melipal water service receive a monthly bill with a fixed charge for consumption of up to 15 m3, which in May was 3,276.64 pesos (May value) and has an additional cost for each extra cubic meter consumed, with a progressive scale in values to discourage excessive water consumption or waste.
Therefore, the value starts at 195.16 pesos, for each additional m3 in consumption of 15 to 30 m3; 238.14 pesos (from 30 to 45 m3); 290.99 pesos (45 to 60 additional m3); and 355.18 pesos (more than 60 additional m3).
