Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Human Rights Ombudsman to Deal with Water

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Human Rights Ombudsman to Deal with Water

    Panorama.am

    '14:43 02/06/06

    HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN TO DEAL WITH WATER


    Two days ago a public regulatory committee issued a
    decision according to which AMD 172.8 is set per one
    cubic meter for water. Consumer rights protection
    organizations protest the decision saying that it is
    against the rights of consumers and contradict several
    international treaties and local laws. According to
    Abgar Yeghoyan, Consumer Rights Protection Chairman
    and Armen Poghosyan, Head of Consumer Association say
    that Water Code and Orhus treaty, Poverty Alienation
    Strategic Program and a number of other legal acts are
    violated, in particular.

    Water supply is mainly regulated by two legal acts -
    Water Code and Law on Regulatory Body. According to
    the latter, water tariffs are set by the public
    regulatory committee whereas this price was set by the
    French operator who has received the right for water
    use. Neither the experts nor public organizations were
    consulted on the optimal rate of water fee. However,
    Water State Committee Chairman is sure that Jeneral
    Dez O, the French operator, is a leading company in
    the world and will meet the obligations put in front
    it.

    Public organizations have variously tried to receive
    the copy of the contract between water state committee
    and Jeneral Dez O, however, they failed to get it.
    Today, they intend to apply to human rights ombudsman
    with a claim against committee's decision. The
    non-profits say they do no apply to court as a first
    step because they cannot afford high fees. They
    connect their hopes only with round table discussions
    and press conferences.

    It's interesting why the non-profits started to
    protest out loud the decision only after it was
    reached. The committee held a session a month ago
    during which the proposed tariff was not approved.
    Non-profits only sent a letter to R. Nazaryan and held
    one round table well aware that they won't give any
    tangible results./Panorama.am/
Working...
X