Water shut off for bad payers
28. jan. 2013 13.00 EnglishThe method is harsh, but it works. According to a report by Politiken, an increasing number of water and wastewater companies across Denmark are now shutting off the water supply to people who do not pay their water bill.
The only way
Members of Danva, the Danish Water and Wastewater Association, are currently owed more than DKK 95 million by customers who have not paid for their potable drinking water or for treatment of their wastewater, and they are dissatisfied by the inability of public authorities to collect this money.
"We cannot continue to turn the other cheek when it is so clear that the tax authority's collection efforts do not work," said Danva chairman Lars Therkildsen to Politiken.
He stressed that the companies are acting legally when they choose to shut off the water.
It works
Esbjerg Forsyning is one of the companies that uses this method, which according to managing director Jesper Frost Rasmussen is "very effective".
In the past two years, the company has reduced total payments in arrears from more than DKK 4 million to "a few hundred thousand", according to Frost Rasmussen.