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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS: In the result of the Armenian Water and Sewerage Company’s activities in the marzes of the republic, the average duration of water supply became 14 hours. Armenpress interviewed Patrick Lorin, company CEO, on the results of 2010 and plans of 2011.
Mr. Lorin, how would you describe the role of 2010 for the Armenian Water and Sewerage Company? What results were registered?
- Actually, 2010 was a successful year for the company. We achieved our goals and improved a number of indices. The results of the year are being concluded now and afterwards they will be presented publicly. In general, I can note that serious work was implemented in the improvement of water supply. Works were carried out in 15 cities and towns and 80 rural communities. According to initial data, projects of 35 million USD were implemented 2010. In the result, water supply duration became 14 hours per day: as compared to 2009, it increased by 1 hour. The energy consumption in the water supply system was reduced in a mechanical way. 44 million kW energy was consumed 2009 and 40 million kW – late 2010.
How would you assess the efficiency of the process of collecting the consumed water payments?
- According to the data of late 2010, 3.8 billion AMD was collected, and during the same period of 2009, 3.4 billion AMD was collected. This is a positive index; however it cannot be considered satisfying. It is necessary to endeavor to achieve better results. We hope that we will go on improving this index in the future as well. Today, the majority of our costumers are payers. It is gratifying that the number of costumers, who do not pay, is decreasing gradually. We settle such issues through our consecutive activities. People must realize that they have to pay for water supply. Yes, there are towns, rural communities, where the quality of services is not on a proper level; however we undertake steps in this direction.
What alternative ways do you offer to the costumers, who have debts of several years and cannot pay directly?
- We offer to our customers a suitable variant of debt payment. According to it, water will be supplied in case the costumer signs a corresponding document on paying the debts within a concrete period. This means that a concrete timeframe for payment is being defined. In the current stage, the company has 267 thousand costumers and 180 thousand of them receive permanent services. The rest of them are registered as ‘closed doors’. Over 77% of the customers have placed water meters. There are several communities, where water meters have not been placed yet. In this case, we face issues in multistory dwellings. Here, the collection process is not easy, as we do not have a source of legal influence and we cannot stop water supply of the whole dwelling. In such dwellings payments are defined per person.
What are the plans for 2011?
In 2011, we will go on improving the indices, we achieved. We will naturally undertake steps in the direction of water supply improvement. We have a number of projects we started late 2010 and intend to finish 2011. Serious activities in the direction of water supply improvement are intended in Hrazdan, Ijevan and Kapan. We plan to make the average duration of water supply 15 hours. We have an objective to go on the process of placing water meters and reduce energy consumption. We have laboratories, supplied with up-to-date technologies, and we check water quality regularly. In the current, year we plan to increase the number of the laboratories. It is not a secret that we have old pipes: the works for replacing them will go on as well. Pipe lines of 1000km have been replaced since 2005. In 2011, we will continue the rout of development. I should note that rise in water tariff is not expected this year.