The Water Supply & Drainage Board (WS&DB) will disconnect water supply and file actions to collect billions of rupees due to it by defaulters including ministers, state institutions and high and mighty If they fail further to settle their bills.

The biggest defaulters are Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, Livestock and Rural Community Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman, Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister Douglas Devananda and TULF leader Anada Sangaree who collectively owes the WS&DB Rs. 1.8 million by December 2010.

Minister Dinesh Gunawardana has instructed WS&DB Chairman Karunasena Hettiaarachchi to write to big time defaulters to settle their bills immediately or face the discontinuation of supply.

“It borders on discrimination or injustice if the WS&DB discontinues water supply to the average consumers on their failure to pay the bills on time. Many of the VIPs have defaulted payments for several years and this is the first time the board is going to take some drastic action on them as they have defaulted for a long time and owes the WS&DB huge amount of payments,” Minister Gunawardana told Daily Mirror.

He said the WS&DB is a state owned venture that provides a vital utility service to the nation. With a huge overhead expenditure and unsettled payments that runs to over Rs. 2 billion, the Board is unable to provide efficient and quality service.

Meanwhile, Chairman WS&DB Karunasena Hettiaarachchi said the Board has an outstanding of over Rs. 1 billion from consumers at any given time.

“Apart from VIPs, other big time defaulters are the local government authorities. Nearly Rs. 365 million is due to the Board from the local government authorities.  The Western PC is the main culprit. They never pay for the ‘stand posts’ that had been erected to supply free water to low income families at the roadside,” he said. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)