Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Hi, is anyone else not getting water supply at the moment, the last 10 days we have had 600 litres only through mains, been to belidiye 5 times they keep saying it will be on later but nothing happens, paid thousands of lira to get meter etc and now virtually zero supply. I am aware that other places have same problem in and around esentepe but does anybody know why. we are kayim 4 site opposite tuncay and yeri restaurant.

Demand to see the Mayor, and insist that he sends you a water tanker, free of charge to make up for the inconvenience.

Create a 'fuss' if you have to...

The mayor does not respond to demands-he’s the prime cause of the problem.

'Expat fuss' in Esentepe to get the Bashkan to take action. More chance of me winning the UK National Lottery and I don't do it. I will not post my opinition of the individual here as it might compromise Soner. Suffice it to say the TC's re-elected him so we must assume he meets their needs - how, beggars belief as workers are not paid, roads are a disgrace, water provision is a rip off for outlying areas.

My friend lives out there near Tempo and has had no water for 3 weeks.
The Belediye is just not interested. What a terrible situation in the middle of summer.

went again this morning......this time was told that the chap who would usually deal with this has experienced a death in the family but someone else will try to solve issue this morning hopefully......will let you know. If no supply of water is as widespread as it appears to be , perhaps if all the owners experiencing this arranged to all go to the belidiye at the same time on the same day something may change.....or at least gain an explanation for it???

goldfish123 wrote:went again this morning......this time was told that the chap who would usually deal with this has experienced a death in the family but someone else will try to solve issue this morning hopefully......will let you know. If no supply of water is as widespread as it appears to be , perhaps if all the owners experiencing this arranged to all go to the belidiye at the same time on the same day something may change.....or at least gain an explanation for it???

Wishful thinking I'm afraid. When he first announced 5.7K TL for meter and infrastructure costs per house, I and a neighbour wrote to him and I then went to see him at an agreed appointment time. After 3 minutes he walked out and the translator told me the Bashkan had to attend another, more important meeting. I wrote then to the District Land Office in Girne outlying the case. All I received was a letter stating the Bashkan denied this and the stated staggered cost per usage charge (which, incidentally the Bashkan had published in English and Turkish previously) and the charges he set were his to decide. Needless to say, we still rely on tanker supply water from a neighbouring, but out of Esentepe jurisdiction, village supplier. It is, however, 20 TL per tonne but at least our small estate has water.

Whatever, good luck with your case.

With a problem like this, you should all get together and do as Goldfish123 has suggested. Also, try and get the media involved, radio, newspapers etc.

Soner wrote:With a problem like this, you should all get together and do as Goldfish123 has suggested. Also, try and get the media involved, radio, newspapers etc.

Soner, this issue was raised and published in the press, taken to Girne Land Office and the TRNC Ombudsmen. End result - nothing changed. I fully accept this is your forum and we conform to your rules or we are red carded. However, mass action by expats is unlawful, according to the Police, even if permitted within TRLC law. You can understand our frustration.

So, are you saying that it is only expats that do not get water? And, all TC's get their supply?

Soner wrote:So, are you saying that it is only expats that do not get water? And, all TC's get their supply?

No Soner, absolutely not! What I am saying is there is one price for meters and infrastructure costs for those living within Esentepe village and a much higher, extortionate, cost for those yet to be connected in outlying areas. However, the fundamental difference between TC and expat is the former can vote to remove poor/indifferent/biased (mis)/management whilst the latter cannot and has no redress. I could easily give a comparative breakdown of the various prices for those within and those not - however, that might be seen as a criticism of the Bashkan - heaven forbid! On record is his statement that 'the to be charged increased water infrastructure costs would be used to help build his beach complex'. Is that legal? Water and sewage provision is a right under international law, but not here in Esentepe, apparently.

I accept this theme is not going to resolve anything, so please feel free to close it if you feel so disposed.

En iyi dileklerimle dostrum, Tom

Tom, you need to find out exactly who are affected by his plans, create a petition, with the help of TC's that have same issue and try and take this forward. As for International Law on water, I always thought this was also the case here in the TRNC aswell, but not being a recognised state....does it apply? Smart water meters had been placed in all homes in Gecitkale, and water can not be purchased unless all belediye bills are up to date. I had asked a TC if someone could not pay their bills would that mean they would remain without water. Response was they would have to buy privately, mention of international law meant nothing.

Today several houses on our development have had their meters removed without notification. As you can imagine, it has caused a great deal of upset as the Belediye offices are now closed. There was a message in Turkish on the Facebook page yesterday that Google translate couldn't make sense of. It seems that some 'smart' meters are faulty and are to be replaced but these ones were taken when no-one was about and no information as to why or when they will be replaced has been given. If anyone has any further information then we would be very pleased to hear it.

I went to belediye office today and was told that all meters on Kayim 7 will be replaced tomorrow, after that we will receive water. Apparently forged cards have been used. Not specifically on Kayim 7. Some meters have been replaced on Turtle Bay.

Think they are recalibrated and refitted not replaced. I am aware of them coming back minus the credit that was on them

Glenn & Bert

We also live on Kayim 7, will we have to go and get a new card ??

I thought the credit was on the card chip and not the actual meter or am I wrong ??

lee666 wrote:Glenn & Bert

We also live on Kayim 7, will we have to go and get a new card ??

I thought the credit was on the card chip and not the actual meter or am I wrong ??

You could not write a better comedy of failure to notify your users. The Belidiye appear to think it runs you, as opposed to it's requirement to represent you and act accordingly.

Glenn & Bert,
Thanks for the replies. I've since heard from a neighbour that she went to Belediye after the meter was removed, having recorded the credit on it and was told that the credit was being noted by them. I hope so as we had about 30 tonnes on the meter and another 20 for emergencies on the card. What concerns me is that if the meters are not replaced tomorrow then it'll be next week which may put a strain on reserves with 7 holiday makers in the house.

Tom, the initial thoughts were that the meters had been stolen as none of the houses besides us had been notified nor been present when they were removed. My husband was about to go to the police...

Update, I went to the Belediye offices to find out what's going on. Apparently, the suspicion is that households have been getting water without the meter clocking it, due to faulty meters. They showed me the paperwork where the credit (or debit) has been recorded at the time of removal and the amount of credit for our meter looked right to me. The meters will be returned this afternoon, insallah, with zero credit and we will have to take our cards up to the office on Monday to have them reformated and the existing credit added on. We will be taking our receipts to show that we have credit on the card too. It was suggested that the meter was showing a negative balance and we owed for 84 tonnes but I managed to convince them otherwise, we'll see what happens on Monday... I heard from someone else that this was happening, but I don't know what proof the Belediye can provide.

The Bashkani will get more cash from us all somehow or other. Good luck on Mon and do please let us know the outcome.

Our meter was returned on Friday less the credited tonnes....surprise surprise!

Has anyone been recredited yet and how does it work?

Thanks

All the meters on our site were returned on Friday but they were locked. We went up to the Belediye at 8 this morning and managed to get Cenk (who removed the meters) to come back to our site and unlock all of them which allowed the 3 tonnes emergency water to come through. We went back up with our cards, found the slip of paper where our credit had been noted and added the credit from the cards to it, the cards were reformatted and then all the credit was added back on. We took the cards back, inserted them in the meter and the credit showed up minus the amount of emergency water used. Much simpler than expected but perhaps that's because Cenk was there to help and his English is very good.

Art,
The plan for today is they will come and unlock your meter, once that is done you need to go to the office to get your card reformatted and then any credit added. Unfortunately for some, they may owe money as some of the amounts had a minus sign beside them.

P.s. approximately 200 of 4000 meters in the area were faulty.

coa - can you let us know the make and model number of the faulty meters? We are still to be connected, so I would be grateful to know what to look out for. Thanks.

TS
We were told, by Cenk, that it was a battery problem. Of 4000+ meters installed 200 had the problem so 5% affected.
Out of 9 houses on our development, 4 had problems so we bucked the trend...

I will see if I can get the make/model info later.

come_on_aylin wrote:TS
We were told, by Cenk, that it was a battery problem. Of 4000+ meters installed 200 had the problem so 5% affected.
Out of 9 houses on our development, 4 had problems so we bucked the trend...

I will see if I can get the make/model info later.

Much appreciated - an Efes in your drinks bank.

Tom, all our meters are the same make/model so there no rhyme or reason as to why some are afflicted with the dreaded Error 5.... but it appears to relate to the battery and firmware. So in short problem fixed no biggy other than the timing... taking the meter on Thursday and replacing it on Friday after office hours meant we could not actually get water flowing over the weekend....

Groucho wrote:Tom, all our meters are the same make/model so there no rhyme or reason as to why some are afflicted with the dreaded Error 5.... but it appears to relate to the battery and firmware. So in short problem fixed no biggy other than the timing... taking the meter on Thursday and replacing it on Friday after office hours meant we could not actually get water flowing over the weekend....

Thanks buddy.

Interesting thread, doesn't make any difference to kayim 4 site though, there is no problem with the meters other than there is no water supply reaching them, when some does it is at such low pressure that it makes little difference.

Well now Tuesday and still no water on Kayim 7, Esentepe which now means we've had no water for almost 2 weeks.

No one turned up on Friday or yesterday to do whatever they need to the meters, will they turn up today ??

Does anyone Esentepe side have any futher update ??

Re : Esentepe water

Yes we had our Water meter taken and yes we thought initially it has been stolen. Translating the Belediye message on Facebook and with the help of Hati yes understood some were faulty, some needed recalibrating.
Was concerned that we had a credit of around 38 tonnes and when the meter was replaced a couple of days later it showed around 1 tonne credit.
Went to the office and after a while trying to find me in their file, they confirmed that i had a credit balance of 38 tonne. They swiped my card which i put into the replacement meter and it was credited the right amount.
It hot yes of course there is a language difficulty, unfortunately there records are not on computer they have to go through several files to find your "sheet," just try to be patient they are not out to diddle you.

Lee666,

Probably best idea is to go up to the office and ask what's happening. If you can speak to Cenk (pronounced Jenk) he is probably best placed to help you. We found him there at 8am on Monday, he was waiting for transport so we offered to take him to our site and return him to the office (we had to go back to get the cards reformatted anyway) which did the trick for us.

Probably too late now but the ONLY way to highlight this issue towards some kind of resolution was to break the bloody law. Mass protest / inquiry at the Town Hall. Assume 20 people had attend what would the Mayor have done? That's a rhetorical question btw.

I'm 75 and knocked 6 times on The Door of Death these past two years but wasn't admitted - obviously.

My life and yours are too short to pussyfoot and all I hear about the Esentepe water problem is that the ombudswomen will resolve it or let's wait and see, but whatever we do don't upset the apple cart.

Whinging but do nothing collectively Brits? Yes

Please don't reply here with excuses saying, "This could happen or that could happen if we protested." Of course something will happen. That's the whole bloody point. To get something to happen and bring to the attention of a wider audience (video record the whole event) the stupidity / bias / cruelty of a person(?) in power. I'm sure The Daily Maul would be interested in such a story.

Being among the most voracious anti-Esentepe Belidye mis-treatment of citizens, I have real empathy for your view. However, being arrested for an unlawful protest assembly achieves what? UK press have no interest in expat-TRNC issues. Write to the Editor of the DM and see what response you get!

There is a forum for this issue, regrettably, I am banned for my views, but this forum is in contact with the Ombudsman, so could offer a view if so disposed to do so.

Some of the houses just down from Biinny's restaurant on that estate have not had any water for 5 weeks now despite many trips to complai n to the council offices.

Moonrakers wrote:Some of the houses just down from Biinny's restaurant on that estate have not had any water for 5 weeks now despite many trips to complai n to the council offices.

How many of those houses affected have Cypriot-voting owners as opposed to yabincilar with no say?

Dare I say..... a bit off topic, but a friend posted a video on fb of the rubbish on a beach Kiplica way, it went viral with Can Gazi also commenting & within 48 hours the bele had cleared the rubbish...….. not quite all of it but bin van was there & workers clearing a lot.

Is there any way you can get this problem across in such a way to shame the Muhter

it's the Başkan who needs to made aware of the shortcomings as it is the mayor who heads the council not the muhtar...

Sorry Groucho, only being a visitor not always sure of who is responsible for what

Anyone got a link to the forum ?

Tomsteel.

Most of the folks living on that estate are probably 'non voters' but they do still contribute heavily to the local economy via shops, restaurants, bars etc. etc.

Moonrakers wrote:Tomsteel.

Most of the folks living on that estate are probably 'non-voters' but they do still contribute heavily to the local economy via shops, restaurants, bars etc. etc.

How much I agree! However, we have no influence or clout with the Baskani, hence we are ignored - despite the income we put into the local economy. My local TC neighbour (Mustafa) tried to intervene several times with the Baskani on 'yabancilar' injustices. In the end, my neighbour was refused access to the Baskani, even though Mustafa is a citizen. Sadly, the man was recently re-elected by the majority of citizens of Esentepe, so they must be happy with him.

kiplet wrote:Anyone got a link to the forum ?

ESENTEPE WATER CAMPAIGN FOR FAIRNESS AND TRANSPARENCY - FB forum.

Hi Tomsteel, that page seems to be 'No longer available'...

Keithcaley wrote:Hi Tomsteel, that page seems to be 'No longer available'...

Hi Keith, as I explained previously, I have been deselected from the group, so that is the only contact I had. I will PM you the email address of a known member and you can seek his views.

OK thanks tom

Keithcaley wrote:OK thanks tom

I am awaiting his permission.

Tom

tomsteel wrote:

kiplet wrote:Anyone got a link to the forum ?

ESENTEPE WATER CAMPAIGN FOR FAIRNESS AND TRANSPARENCY - FB forum

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1796309527313828/
Hope this helps.

Thanks Bullsnil, however, still can't view it, 'cos it appears to be a closed group

Never mind, thanks anyway.

I can’t access either

tomsteel wrote:

Keithcaley wrote:OK thanks tom

I am awaiting his permission.

Tom

Keith PM me your email contact address, which I will pass on to the member of the group, please.