Monterey, NL. The National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism of Monterreyspoke out against the increase in the water rate, because it represents an increase of up to 91% for industry and commerce, and proposed that first the state and the municipalities pay the debt they have, for around 1,100 million pesos.
“Our position is that we do not accept an increase of up to 91%, for industry and commerce: we must add the 25% increase in sanitation, plus 70% rate, plus the ecological rate, it is calculated, in that industry or business that consumes more than 100 cubic meters per month”, explained Javier Arteaga Gutiérrez, president of Canaco Servytur Monterrey”.
For example, an affiliated company told them that it consumes 600 cubic meters and pays 40,000 pesos to Water and Drainage Services of MonterreyWith the rise in rates, he will have to pay around 75,000 pesos, he estimated.
“We have told the authorities that we are aware that an increase is required, if efficiency is achieved first; with an increase of 10% it would be enough for the state government to make the required investments of up to 50,000 million pesos, to bring water from Pánuco, or bring seawater and desalinate, among other projects”, he emphasized.
He recalled that on March 7, the governor proposed an increase in three rates: the ecological that are contributions of 10 pesos voluntarilyto plant trees in the Cumbres Parkbehind the Sierra de Chipinque, to have more humidity and for there to be more water.
The second rate is for sanitation, –treatment of sewage waters–, which requires an investment of 5,000 million pesos, to improve sanitation and there are new specifications, (an increase in) that rate of 25% was approved of the value of the water rate and presented a staggered rate, which reached 60 percent, he emphasized.
The chambers said, the right thing is for Monterrey Water and Drainage Services to improve its efficiency, we are happy with the measures, in terms of ending the corruption that existed before”.
However, “there is an efficiency problem, of every 100 liters that are injected into the network, only 60 liters are billed, and of that figure only 45 liters are charged. There is 40% of water that is not billed, and of what is billed a part is not charged, we have to solve that problem first, a program has already been made, to cover 60 to 80%, that represents 2,600 million annually of pesos more”, explained the leader of the merchants of Nuevo León.
He commented that he visits the La Boca Dam since 1960 and had never seen a drought like the current one, therefore, the organization encourages its members to reduce water consumption by 25%.
There are four types of users:
- industrial
- Commercial
- Public sector
- home users
In the case of public users, what happens with other users should be applied, that they are given the receipt and before the next month is over they are already paying, otherwise the water is reduced, he deepened.
“The debt that the state and municipal government has is 30 months on averagewe have found receipts that have not been paid for 25 years from municipalities, that adds up to 1,000 million pesos that can be used to drill a new aqueduct, and that the state government and municipalities are using it as petty cash”, because electricity is paid or cut off
“We have dealt with this matter since 2019 and since that date it was 900 million pesos that was owed, it has risen to 1,100 million pesos,” he said.
The other debt is home, with an average of eight months, there could be recovered 2,400 million pesos, said Javier Arteaga.
