The counter argument is that disconnecting water deprives the poorest residents access to a necessity that the United Nations has determined is a human right. Utilities generally cover their costs through customer payments.īut shutoffs are also controversial. Utilities justify shutoffs as financial self-preservation: a tool to ensure that customers pay for the service and the utility has enough revenue to operate. Many have suspended that practice during the pandemic. Most water utilities - and Phoenix previously - turn water off to households and businesses that do not pay their bills. “We’re hoping this is a reasonable compromise.” “We’re moving to a world where disconnections are more and more problematic,” Sorensen told Circle of Blue, acknowledging the consequences for hygiene and health. We’re hoping this is a reasonable compromise.” Kathryn Sorensen, Phoenix Water It’s a balancing act required of utilities across the country, which, in addition to the rising cost of water, have customers who are now dealing with the coronavirus, an economic recession, and the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Sorensen, the director of Phoenix Water, views flow restrictors as a middle ground that preserves the utility’s ability to make sure that bills are paid, while not completely cutting off service to those who don’t. utility to use flow restrictors instead of shutting off water to households that are behind on their bills. Phoenix, which began using the devices in early March, only to remove them a few weeks later once the pandemic happened, believes it is the first U.S. Inserted where the meter connects to the service line, the device cuts the flow of water into the home to a trickle. But Kathryn Sorensen and the staff at Phoenix Water Services Department think the little device - and the pinhole in its center that severely constricts water flow - could address one of the utility’s most vexing problems. The disk is small and compact, no bigger across than a quarter.
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