Guadeloupean residents cancel water bills that have gone unpaid for years

What’s the point of paying for water? The agglomeration community of South Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe announced the “cancellation of all outstanding bills relating to the consumption of water and sanitation by private individuals”, i.e. the allocation of 13.16 million euros for the municipalities of the former water supply authority.

It must be said that non-payment of water bills seems to be a well-known phenomenon. “From 2020, users will have their bills cancelled, amounting to 29.75 million euros,” said Thierry Abelli, president of the agglomeration community. He recalled that the first round of cancellations amounting to 16.59 million euros had already taken place between 2020 and 2023.

Citizen insecurity and billing irregularities

These cancellations apply to private individuals only. Accounts “emanating from companies and government organizations in the amount of about 10 million euros” will not be cancelled, the city clarified.

The reasons that prompted the South Basse-Terre agglomeration community to draw a line under these accounts are numerous: “the precariousness of the families living in this territory,” as well as the regulatory obligation to close the accounts, despite “exceptions and deadlines.” , as well as “observable billing irregularities” identified by the former water department, where meters were sometimes faulty or missing.

“These figures are already fixed in deficit, this will not change the financial state of the community”, however, Thierry Abelli emphasized, calling on individuals, while the community is already over-indebted, “to pay the bills from now on, given this significant effort.

For many years, Guadeloupe has experienced serious problems with access to potable water, with numerous water outages, sewerage failures, and problems related to the good technical and political management of its water supply networks, distributed across several public authorities, resulting in numerous payment refusals accounts. In September 2021, the law introduced a single authority for the territory, the United Syndicate for the Management of Water and Sanitation of Guadeloupe (SMGEAG).