Paris Demetriades
How much reform has the Local Government Reform actually brought to our lives? A year and a half after it came into effect, on 1 July 2024, a clear answer should be available from the officials in charge. They ought to have some data, after all.
In theory, according to the wording still posted on the Ministry of Interior’s website, the reform’s top priority was to deliver higher-quality, more modern services to citizens. But without wanting to be dismissive, since I don’t have the full picture, an unpleasant experience I had last week left me with very real doubts about whether this supposed “upgrade” has actually materialized.
One morning, I woke up to find no water in my apartment. If water isn’t a household necessity, I don’t know what is. I called the Nicosia Water Board (EOA) to figure out the problem and why my water had been cut off. I didn’t have any unpaid bills, but in the chaos of daily life, I assumed that might be a possibility. Either way, the water had to be restored immediately.
Six calls and a whole day later, with my taps still dry, and after providing codes and proof of bills, the official finally informed me in a stern tone that they couldn’t help me further and that I should “send an e-mail” to the so-called customer service.
Experience and intuition suggested that the e-mail wouldn’t get a rapid response, so I decided to go in person. Water, I repeat, is a basic necessity.
At the EOA office, the staff member confirmed that my bills were up to date, that the cutoff wasn’t their doing, and that I should look elsewhere for the cause of this unexpected inconvenience. “Maybe someone turned off the valve,” he suggested.
Keep in mind, it took me almost an hour and a half in rush-hour traffic to get there and back from work. This was a painfully real reminder that the system is far from user-friendly. I still don’t understand why my issue couldn’t have been resolved with the first phone call. Why couldn’t the operator have told me immediately that this wasn’t an EOA decision and saved me all that time and frustration?
Another day passed, and my waterless ordeal stretched to three days. After contacting other services and explaining the situation, the mystery was finally solved. Municipal workers doing roadworks outside my building had tampered with pipes that affected not only my apartment but at least one other in the same complex. By that afternoon, water service was finally restored.
Meanwhile, the e-mail I sent on the second day of this “drama” remains unread, or at least that is the polite assumption.
In short, because of municipal works, I was without water for three days and lost a lot of time for no reason. How difficult would it be for phone operators to access the same digital database as the staff in the EOA office? Had a weekend intervened, I would have been dry for five days. So tell me again, how much reform has this reform actually brought into our lives?
