What relates Kafka to DEWA ?

10 December 2016

While the world is falling apart to be better rebuilt and we are hopefully moving to a new really more sustainable economic system which will unfortunately not come without some heartaches, my own personal woes continue thanks to DEWA amongst others.

You might have read about the beginning of the problem where I initially thought that there must be a leakage because the alternate possibility simply seemed so absurd that it did not cross my mind at the time. If you have not, you can go ahead and read it here  https://geethabalvannanathan.com/real-life-experiences/a-sign-of-the-rampant-hypocrisy-that-plagues-our-world-unsustainable-sustainability/

In reality, it seems it was the absurd situation which was in line with the reality of the matter.

The truth of the matter is that since early summer 2016 after an unexpected visit of a DEWA employee who questioned my helper about how come we had such a big garden with a limited consumption of water (to which she had answered that we had a boring well but he simply did not seem satisfied with the answer), a new meter was installed. Since that meter was installed, the June 2016 readings of my water meter plummeted from their usual readings of 3,000 – 6,000 imperial gallons to a sky rocketing 50,000 to 80,000 imperial gallons. Yes, you have read it well, slight more than ten times the initial amounts.

Having gone several times to complain at the main office after unsatisfactory results of online complaints, I kept getting the same result month after month with bills for water ranging between 50,000 IG and 80,000 IG something that is only possible if water is flowing out on the streets uncontrollably, which it is obviously not. The complaints render no useful conclusion but DEWA keeps warning me and reminding me to pay up or else they will simply cut the water and electricity supply – which they actually did once as I only paid half the bill (which in itself was overpaying what I should have paid in reality). All in all, DEWA has charged me in 5 months from June to October for around 240,000 Imperial gallons or over 1,000,000 (yes one million) liters of water while we use sparingly the water in our house and only for showering and toilets because we water the garden with a boring well and drink bottled water, not tap water.

The last employee dispatched after the last online complaint snoops around the property trying to spot some leakage which he is visibly hoping he can pounce upon in order to justify the ridiculous amount of gallons that are being billed to me by DEWA. He seems very disconsolate to see that there is no water leakage and his gaze is met by only dry desert sand, as dry now as my faith in such employee readings of the water meter. To conclude the matter, he addresses my helper and me with a resounding “This is Dubai. If you are not happy, go back to your country”. Well this is not what Dubai had got me used to. I have been living in this country for around 10 years now and this year is the first year that I notice people behaving in such a way. It seems like the “go home attitude” seems to be spreading all over the world as people seem to find it as the ultimate problem solver to all problems within their lands.

Upon taking a picture of my water meter and tweeting about it and getting various responses, I decide that perhaps the main DEWA office can help dissolve this misunderstanding by reading the meter as it cannot possibly be the case that I have consumed 326,181 Imperial gallons as the employees seem to be reading it (the picture relates to the month of November reading and if read by them in that way would mean that barely a month later after I was billed, I succeeded in consuming 80,000 Imperial gallons or 400,000 liters of water, lol. If it were not so dramatic because of the undue billing that is eating away at my bank account, it would be hilarious) but the DEWA main office employees say it is pointless to show them the photograph of the water meter because they do not know how to read a water meter (sic!). There is a small department in a far away office that reads the meter and DEWA simply takes that reading and puts it into the system so that your bill is generated. They practice no oversight over the readings but take them for granted.

Now where it gets really absurd is when, despite the ridiculously high reading you still pay half the bill while waiting for the complaint to reach some perhaps finally satisfactory conclusion after 5-6 months of pointless going back and forth and trying to find a solution, you are told that you better pay the full bill failing which your supply will simply be cut.

Kafka could not have done better in creating a more absurd situation….