Journey of My Life: Water Meter

Friday, January 4, 2008

Water Meter

We returned from holiday 3 days ago... You know, after being away for almost 12 days, there are heaps of laundry and washing. We were busily washing and taking showers when we realised that the tap was trickling with water.

The dirty laundry waiting to be washed

Ivan ran out and discovered that something was missing... Guess what? The METER!!! Theft? Vandalism? Of all things, the water meter? Suddenly, it made sense.... we have not paid the water bill for 3 months. Oh, oh.

Three months ago, we lost the water bill. As a result, we could not pay the follow month's bill and the month after that. We did not know that its a BAD THING to NOT pay your water bill in Thailand. In Malaysia, if you don't pay this month, just accumulate and pay the next. Unfortunately Thailand have a very different system. Anyway, in Malaysia, there are cases of household not paying water bill for years and still have running water, not that we have done it. Just heard about it.

Its strange that they don't 'cut' or 'block' the water. They actually took the whole physical meter! Talking about efficiency!

We came up with a few ideas to resolve the problem... flushing toilet only after a few pee, no long showers, no playing water in the garden, eating bread for meals to cut down on washing and etc. We also came up with another idea which worked but its not legal for me to blog it. Anyway, we drove to Tesco which was 10 mins away from our home, the nearest supermarket to purchase some mineral water.

The next day, after making a call to 1125 - Metropolitan Water Authority (MWA) and fumbling with my limited Thai and was fortunate to be able to talk to someone who could speak English. I came to the conclusion that I had to make a trip to MWA near On Nut BTS, Sukhumvit Soi 50. No choice. That's 45 mins away, if I don't get lost and there is no traffic. Am I being impossible? Yes.

To cut the long story short, after getting a little lost, only very little ("nit noy" in Thai), I found MWA. The lady at the counter gave me a sweet smile and was friendly. Unfortunately she was a bearer of BAD news. The 3 months water bill was only B563.41 (RM57) but the reconnection fees was B1,284 (RM130). Aaarrrrggghh!!! That's our water bill accumulated for 6 months. Boo... hoo... hoo..