Just found out us and this Turkmenistan (no idea who they are) country are the only countries in the entire world out 195 countries that don’t pay their water bills. That’s crazy.

37 comments

  9. According to a Turkmenistan decree of the Peoples’ Council of 14 August 2003,[105] electricity, natural gas, water and salt were to have been subsidized for citizens until 2030. Under implementing regulations, every citizen was entitled to 35 kilowatt hours of electricity and 50 cubic meters of natural gas each month. The state also provided 250 liters (66 gallons) of water per day.[106] As of 1 January 2019, however, all such subsidies were abolished, and payment for utilities was implemented.[107][108][109][110]

    …..so were the only country not paying for our water?
    In an age of environmentalism.

  10. Turkmenistan really is an odyssey to me. I watched a show on Netflix called Dark Tourist where some dude from New Zealand went to Turkmenistan and it was like North Korea, except everything made of either marble or gold in the main city it looked amazing. But his hotel room was bugged, nobody showed up to the countries biggest sporting event that had an opening ceremony on par to the Olympics, and it looked like everyone lived in fear yet nobody ever talks about the country. It just runs like that without media coverage

    So strange it was surreal to see. Especially the people that did show up to the event, it’s like they went there because they felt like they HAD to

  13. In Scotland water is also free but I guess that’s not really a country so much as it is a province of the United Kingdom until they decide to leave the union.

  15. I was there it’s also on 1$ for a gallon of petrol and the capital Ashgabat is made of marble and gold – bizzare place

  16. When the water mains were put in communities often had to subscribe to paythough. I have a copy of a letter my grandfather wrote to his neighbors outlining the scheme for the town my family is from. This was in the early 70s in donegal.

  17. We definitely should have water charges.

    And it should be based on the amount we use from the local mains supply. So, if you have your own well or group scheme then you don’t pay.

    Similarly for waste water, if you use the local main sewage then you should pay and if you have your own septic tank or other self sufficient waste system then you don’t.

    I hear the argument that “we pay for it through general taxation” which is complete nonsense. We should all have free electricity and internet if that was the case.

  18. Don’t give them ideas. They would be happy to get off you another standing charge and taxes off your water bills.
    In other countries you lay buttons for water. It’s either a fixed, maintenance fee, or by a meter if you have one.

  21. Am I like the oldest person here, or am I having a Mandela Effect moment – why has noone here mentioned when Irish Water tried to implement water bills???

  23. Well, this is going to be unpopular, but… we missed a trick fighting the water charges.

    I know at the time, it was one tax after another, and this was the tipping point.

    If we had the tax we could afford to actually fix the water issues in this country and replace some of the 100+ year old pipe that cause us such problems. We could also tackle water wastage by people who leave pipe leaking without getting them fixed and industrial waste.

  28. we pay water bills and have done for years,just well hidin an unmarked in taxes.how many countries make tax payers pay for there own roads,charge a road an car tax an then make u pay tolls to use that road that u payed for

  29. Unpopular opinion – most people use a sensible water quota, but if we introduced water meters/charges, we would quickly see who is abusing the system so we could provide better services for everyone else.

    Treated water is an expensive resourse, especially the quality that our system outputs. Imagine we had the same approach to gas or electricity?!

  35. What’s wrong with people.. we bloody obviously pay for water service.. it doesn’t just magically happen.

    The point is we don’t pay for it based on usage, therefore we don’t have water poverty.

    *I do believe excessive wasting of water should be clamped down on though

  36. Turkmenistan is a mad place altogether. Some really good documentaries out there.

    Your man is a lunatic, as others have pointed out. He also loves marble. He’s basically the number 1 importer of marble by a decent stretch I think.

    Every building in the capital is marble and they build their buildings according to what they’re for, so the massive library is a huge marble book and so on.

    Crazy place, like I said, but definitely worth a documentary or 2. I think they also have this huge pit where gas will burn forever cos they fucked it up somehow and now it looks like the gates of hell.

  37. Just a reminder that the “Irish Water” company was not intended to ever pay for water infrastructure or maintenance.

    It was never on the cards, its a billing scam, paying through the nose to send ourselves bills, essentially getting people to demand another fixed charge upon themselves.

    I wonder how many times they will continue to try and pull off this scam. Its so simple as well, people will just automatically associate “Irish Water” with water charges and paying for water despite that never being an option. I wonder how much have they already spend on these misinformation campaigns?

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