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Disconnecting schools’ water supply halted

21 Oct 2022

BY Buddhika Samaraweera The National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) has agreed to the Ministry of Education’s request to not disconnect the water supply to schools that have not settled the relevant water bills until the Ministry prepares a programme for such schools to settle the said payments. Speaking to The Morning, an official of the Education Ministry said that Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha has discussed the non-settlement of water bills by certain schools with the NWSDB Chairman. During that discussion, he said that Dr. Premajayantha had stated that a programme would be prepared for such schools to settle the water bills, and therefore, had requested the NWSDB not to disconnect the water supply to schools until that programme is formulated. Taking into account the request, the NWSDB has decided to suspend the disconnection of the water supply to schools in question until the implementation of the said programme. Although the NWSDB has not been charging the schools for the water supply and the relevant payments have been made by the General Treasury, NWSDB Deputy General Manager Piyal Pathmanatha told The Morning on Wednesday (19) that the Treasury has not made the relevant payments since 2015. Due to this, he said, a sum of Rs. 1 billion worth of arrears pertaining to unpaid water bills will have to be collected from schools islandwide.  “We are allowing schools to consume 4,000 litres of water for only Rs. 450, whereas if this was for domestic use, the total cost would have been Rs. 12,000. We are unable to continue this, and we are therefore planning to submit a Cabinet paper with the Education Ministry that allows us to charge half of the payment from the school development committee, and the other half from the Treasury,” he said.  


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