Against the backdrop of shortages: occupiers double water tariffs in Mariupol
4 January 08:35
In the temporarily occupied Mariupol, utility tariffs, including water supply, have been sharply increased by almost two times. At the same time, water is only supplied for a few hours every two days.
This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the city council of Ukrainian Mariupol on Telegram.
The new tariffs were announced by the occupation administration of the so-called “DPR”. They explain the increase in the cost of utilities by raising the VAT rate in Russia from 20% to 22%, which, according to them, led to a 1.7% increase in the overall cost of housing and communal services.
The biggest increase was in water bills: on January 1, the tariff was raised from about 21.2 rubles per cubic meter to 41.84 rubles. This happened amid an acute water shortage in the city.
Local residents report that the water supply is intermittent, and some homes have been without water for weeks.
People are forced to drain water from heating systems, which leads to heat outages in apartments.
Heating costs have also risen significantly – by about 292%. Previously, the tariff was about 12.5 rubles per square meter per month, but now it has risen to more than 49 rubles.
At the same time, boiler houses regularly break down in the city, and heating networks suffer accidents.
The occupation administration claims that the current increase is only part of a larger revision of tariffs, which they call “gradual adjustment to an economically justified level.”
“In fact, this is an attempt to shift the financial burden of economic difficulties in the Russian Federation onto the Ukrainian population in the occupied territories,” the Mariupol City Council said.
