Fikremariam Tesfaye
21 July 2008
Addis Abeba — The Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority (AWSA) on Friday admitted there was water shortage in the city and said it was doing every thing possible to ensure adequate supply.
The authority said the city's water supply was too little to meet the ever increasing demand, as a result of some reasons, notably the more than 55 thousand condominium houses that being built each year.
"The current water supply of the city is not more than fifty percent of the total demand," Getnet Gessesse, Head, Information and Public Relation Service told reporters.
He said the authority was aware of the "immense" shortage of water supply in the city.
He said in a move to curb the dire shortage, the authority was carrying 63 deep well projects around the city which, believed to bolster its capacity by 30 per cent.
Meanwhile, the authority urged the public to settle bills for the supply of water in a timely manner.
He said more than 30 percent of the bill was returned unpaid to the main branch this fiscal year, which means some three to four million Birr was overdue on clients.
In that respect, the authority announced that, effective August 3, 2008, it has extended the five day grace period to 14 days.
This, said the authority will not only offer respite to customers, but it also avoids extra expense normally levied up on them for failing to pay their bills within the five days.
Getnet said the decision was part of the Business Re-engineering Process (BPR), currently underway in the authority, "just like other government bodies" aimed at responding to customer complaints by establishing a direct and regular contact with clients.
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