NWC pours cold water on citizen’s SR2m bill claim

BURAIDAH: A citizen here has claimed that the National Water Company (NWC) sent him a bill of a whopping SR2 million even though he lives in an ordinary house and does not own any businesses.
However, the NWC’s office in Qassim has denied sending Abdulrahman Suleiman Almiteq a bill of this amount, and claimed that it was merely a photocopy of an internal document about his case, a local publication reported on Wednesday.
Almiteq was quoted as saying that he was told by the NWC that his account was over SR2 million. Not believing what he was told, he logged onto the website of the directorate and discovered that he owed SR2.14 million, with the directorate giving him until April 6 to pay, he claimed.
He said that he then went to the directorate hoping that it would tell him it was a mistake. However, he was told that it was over SR2 million, which saw him file an objection. He said the bill was corrected to SR4,014.
However, Ibrahim Othman, spokesman for the NWC in Qassim, claimed in a statement that a bill of this amount was never sent out to Almiteq. It was also not true that there was a demand for immediate payment. He said the bill had been under review and the service never cut.
He said the document was a statement of the client’s account, the correct bill was issued, and that the water directorate does not send text messages demanding payment. It checks the accuracy of the meter reading and if it is correct, it sends a written letter to the client asking him to visit the customer service center.
He said the NWC always checks what might have caused a high water reading. All pipelines are examined by technical teams and fixed if needed. After correcting the situation the client is then billed, he was quoted as saying.