(Business in Cameroon) - In a letter to the Cameroonian Prime Minister on October 6, 2014, Philémon Yang, suggests that the Head of government “reject the price adjustment request…starting January 1, 2015,” a request made on October 2, 2014 by the Service Concession and Performance Contract Monitoring Committee of the State-run Camerounaise des eaux and Camwater (Cameroon Water Utilities).

According to the consumer rights association, whose president, Magellan Delor Kamgaing, had gone on a hunger strike in April 2014 in protest against the electricity rate increase announced in Cameroon, the “new rate adjustment” sought aims to obtain government approval for an increase on the per cubic metre price of water distributed by Camerounaise des eaux.

This attempt, which has been called “iniquitous and cynical”, has attracted LCC disapproval for the following reasons: “the under-supply of drinking water; already high per cubic metre billing rates (364 FCFA, while electricity for low-income consumers is billed at 100 FCFA), excessive reconnection penalties (4,590 FCFA), billing for metre maintenance (780 FCFA) even though the metres are never maintained and the non-application of drinking water service regulations that have been in effect for several years, emphasising consumer rights.”