In the Zodiaco district of Anzio in a building with 12 families the running water was turned off. There are also 3 disabled people, even a 101 year old lady!!! But no one seems to care.
Not a drop of water comes out of the taps anymore. Impossible to wash, do a washing machine, clean the house or go to the bathroom: Acqualatina has cut off the water supply.
I wonder how the gentlemen of Acqualatina manage to sleep leaving a 101 year old lady without water?
How do the mayors who support Acqualatina sleep?
How do the police who don’t want to intervene in these cases sleep?
How do judges who issue sentences based on the assumption that water is a commodity sleep?
What civilization can be called such if it leaves a 101 year old lady without water?
Can you leave a human being without water?
These people have been experiencing this situation for a week now. They are trying in every way to find a solution with the water manager, who, however, they tell us, refuses any proposal or meeting.
Water is not a commodity, it is an essential good for life. You cannot take away water from human beings, even if they are in arrears.
AND there would also be much to discuss about arrears.
We listened to the testimony of people who are without water, who explained the facts to us according to their point of view.
Settlement proposals have been made, given that the debt is very high and practically impossible to pay for people who are certainly not rich. No reply.
It should also be underlined that we are talking about an old debt, because the condominium has regularly paid all its bills in recent years (so they tell us, ready to prove it to us).
Here is the letter that a representative of the building released to the press which is then followed by Acqualatina’s response
The appeal of families without water
“Dear Editor, I am addressing you on behalf of the condominium owners of the building located in Via del Leone, in the Zodiaco district of Anzio, to expose a situation of serious hardship that we are experiencing and for which we ask for a media intervention that can give voice to our difficulty.
Today, Monday 10 June, the sixth day without water begins.
On Wednesday 5 June, without any warning, the Acqualatina Spa company interrupted the water supply to our building, seriously impacting the daily life of 12 families, including three people with disabilitiesone of whom is a 101 year old lady, and a baby! […]
We find ourselves in a state of arrears not by our own will but due to difficulties in interacting with Acqualatina, which includes the failure to respond to a transaction proposal and the failure to grant a “balance and write-off” discount of which other condominiums in the neighborhood they benefited.
Furthermore, the invoices issued contain unjustified expenses which further aggravate our situation.On June 7, a delegation of our condominium owners went to the Acqualatina offices in Nettuno with a sum sufficient to cover a third of the alleged debt, hoping to obtain the transaction, but without success. Even though we had 11 thousand euros with us, compared to the 33 thousand that according to Acqualatina we have to pay, they did not agree to open the procedure for the water connection, stating that we are not entitled to the balance and write-off, and therefore that sum is not enough!
The desperation is palpable, and the lack of water, combined with the lack of clear communication from Acqualatina, pushes us to seek his help in shedding light on this injustice.
Our feeling is that Acqualatina is taking advantage of its position as a monopolist to exert unjustified pressure on citizens, some of whom, like us, have always honored their payments. Why don’t the institutions intervene? We have now been without water for several days!
We trust you to bring to light what is happening in our neighborhood.
Letter signed and with telephone number
Acqualatina’s response
Acqualatina, like all water managers and beyond, adopts a procedure for the recovery of the credit accrued for a service provided to users who are in arrears.
This procedure is in line with what is dictated by the national authority ARERA, and involves a series of progressive actions starting from telephone contacts, continuing with postal reminders, up to personalized meetings with dedicated staff with preferential access.
First of all, in fact, the Company implements a series of actions designed to meet the needs of users and to deal with any proven conditions of poverty and difficulty. In addition to the aforementioned reminders, we recall the personalized installment plans and the application of the social water bonus, as a measure aimed at reducing the expenditure incurred for the supply by families in conditions of economic hardship.
Before reaching the intervention of closing or reducing the water flow, therefore, Acqualatina implements a series of preparatory activities, precisely aimed at avoiding a similar epilogue.
The closure or reduction activity via seal affixed to the meter is applied in the absence of any manifestation of intention to pay or if the possibly agreed repayment plan is not respected.
Further measures are implemented in cases where the seal is removed with forced and illegitimate reactivation of the supply. In such cases, the flow is closed directly at the road outlet and the flow can only be reactivated upon payment, even partial, and the simultaneous signing of a repayment plan for the remainder.
The suspension of the flow implemented last June 5th at the condominium in Via del Leone n.4, in the Zodiac District of Anzio, which has been discussed in the local media, is one of these cases. Today, the leaders of Acqualatina and the Extraordinary Commission of the Municipality of Anzio met to discuss the issues that emerged in this area.
In conclusion, we remind you that Acqualatina, like any other public service company, has the obligation to recover the credit accrued for a service provided. This is both in legal terms and in terms of fairness towards the majority of users who regularly pay what they owe.
Politicians look the other way
The main responsibility, in my very personal opinion, however, remains with the political class, which has completely ignored the will expressed by the Italian people with the referendum on public water, which has enacted noose laws for users of any service (water, electricity, gas, telephones….), who is complicit in the actions of the managers in cases like this, even just by looking the other way.
After rejoicing in your great electoral victories this evening, try to think of the 101 year old lady in her house without a drop of water for a week.
Read also: “Smart” Acqualatina meters arrive in all the homes of Nettuno
