For the citizens of Sarajevo Canton, water will not become more expensive. This was said for the “Avaz” portal by the Minister of Communal Economy, Infrastructure, Physical Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection Enver Hadziahmetovic.
“The price of water must be higher, but that price will not apply to the citizens of Canton Sarajevo. We are moving towards the decision for citizens to pay for water at the current price. That’s what it’s about. The position of the Ministry is clear, and that is the protection of citizens,” said Hadziahmetovic.
He also explained why there was a story about rising water prices. Namely, Hadziahmetovic said that they received a request from the company “Vodovod i kanalizacija” (ViK) stating that fuel prices had risen by 50 percent, electricity by 30 percent, and raw materials by 30 to 300 percent …
An independent body has been formed
They also stated that they had received from the EBRD to pay a debt of 860,000 BAM and that they could not meet all the above requirements with the already existing price of water, and that they were thus losing money.
“I processed the request and we submitted it to the Government of CS, which has formed an independent body that will decide on the price of water. The request for the price of water is being processed and will be submitted to the Government of CS by the end of June. In that document, the independent body will present its opinion and propose what the price can and must be. But the price of the service brought by that body does not necessarily mean that it will go to the citizens,” said the minister.
He stated that the Ministry, together with the CS Government, managed to pay one installment of the loan requested by the EBRD a month ago. This means that the CS government has already in some way reduced the risk to ViK that it has to go with price increases.
“At the session of the Government of CS, which will sit after an independent body decides on the price, we as the Ministry will ask that the price of water does not increase for citizens, because we can otherwise indirectly save the existing price. The Ministry will go to the Government with that information. The position of the Government is that it will support us in that. All this will be known in mid-July, when we will go public and say that the price of water will be this one, but we have found a way to repay the loan installment, save water and sewerage so that it can do business, and protect citizens from price increases,” said Hadziahmetovic.
