The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced that it would start cutting off the services of homes, schools and businesses that were at least 60 days overdue or more than $150 behind. As many as 3,000 properties are expected to be cut off each week. As many as 30,000 households will be subject to the move by the end of summer.
The cut offs come as part of a further money-generating scheme by the Detroit City Council , which announced earlier this month that it is expected to hike water bills by more than $5 per month – an increase of 8.7 per cent. Detroit residents have seen water rates rise by 119 per cent within the last decade. Official but understated unemployment rates at a record high and the official, understated poverty rate at about 40 per cent, Detroit water bills are unaffordable to a significant portion of the population.
Campaigners accuse officials in the bankrupt city of eyeing up privatisation opportunities as part of a “savage austerity regime.” They say that it “fears that authorities see people’s unpaid water bills as a ‘bad debt’ and want to sweeten the pot for a private investor by imposing even more of the costs of the system on those least able to bear them.”
The cut offs come as part of a further money-generating scheme by the Detroit City Council , which announced earlier this month that it is expected to hike water bills by more than $5 per month – an increase of 8.7 per cent. Detroit residents have seen water rates rise by 119 per cent within the last decade. Official but understated unemployment rates at a record high and the official, understated poverty rate at about 40 per cent, Detroit water bills are unaffordable to a significant portion of the population.
Campaigners accuse officials in the bankrupt city of eyeing up privatisation opportunities as part of a “savage austerity regime.” They say that it “fears that authorities see people’s unpaid water bills as a ‘bad debt’ and want to sweeten the pot for a private investor by imposing even more of the costs of the system on those least able to bear them.”
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UPDATE
On Wednesday, three UN experts on the human rights to water and sanitation, adequate housing, and extreme poverty and human rights condemned the DWSD’s widespread water disconnections. “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” the experts said in a statement.
“Disconnections due to non-payment are only permissible if it can be shown that the resident is able to pay but is not paying. In other words, when there is genuine inability to pay, human rights simply forbids disconnections,” said Catarina de Albuquerque, the expert on the human right to water and sanitation.
On Wednesday, three UN experts on the human rights to water and sanitation, adequate housing, and extreme poverty and human rights condemned the DWSD’s widespread water disconnections. “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” the experts said in a statement.
“Disconnections due to non-payment are only permissible if it can be shown that the resident is able to pay but is not paying. In other words, when there is genuine inability to pay, human rights simply forbids disconnections,” said Catarina de Albuquerque, the expert on the human right to water and sanitation.
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