Gonzales blasts WASA over 700% plumbing fee hikes

Op­po­si­tion MP and for­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les is call­ing for the re­moval of his suc­ces­sor, Bar­ry Padarath and the board and ex­ec­u­tive man­age­ment of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), ac­cus­ing the au­thor­i­ty of qui­et­ly in­creas­ing some plumb­ing in­spec­torate fees by as much as 700 per cent with­out in­form­ing the pub­lic.

But Padarath is de­fend­ing the in­creas­es, say­ing the fees had not been re­viewed since the 1980s and no longer re­flect­ed the cost to WASA for pro­vid­ing the ser­vices.

Speak­ing at an Op­po­si­tion me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les claimed the new fees took ef­fect on Ju­ly 1, but stake­hold­ers and cus­tomers were not no­ti­fied.