Mayor of Ankara: If water discount is applied, we will not be able to pay staff salaries

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality (ABB) Mayor Mansur YAVAŞ reacted to the decision to reduce the water tariffs as the Water and Sewerage Administration (ASKI) already charged half of the cost, by another 50 percent. YAVAŞ said, “If this discount is applied, we will not be able to pay staff salaries with ASKI’s water revenue. We will not be able to invest at all and we will not be able to cover electricity costs.

On October 10, the AKP members’ offer of a 50 percent discount on water fees, already sold for half of the cost, was re-adopted in the ABB Assembly despite the veto decision.

In Ankara, where 300 million cubic meters of water is provided annually, the 1.8 billion TL that will be obtained by six TL of the fee will not even cover the annual electricity expense of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Water and Sewerage Administration (ASKI), which is expected to be 2.3 billion TL.

This decision, which was taken despite the economic conditions in the country with the energy, personnel and decontamination costs that are constantly increasing, means that ASKI will stop all urgent infrastructure investments.