Unbelievable

We heard from Mario at the end of last week that Acea our water company has disconnected our supply because we have no contract.  He sent a photo of a scrappy piece of paper with a reference that bore no relation to our meter confirming this had happened on 28 January.  After investigation we discovered that our meter and those of our neighbours on the mountainside had been turned off and padlocked, the scraps of paper confirming this left in the snake pit where the meters are housed.

We have had a contract for 20 years, less 3 when our house was rented and our tenants took in the contract, we have a standing order to pay our always estimated bills, we haven’t had a meter reading since 2009.  In fact after the meter was turned off we still received and paid a bill.

We have been in touch with our immediate neighbours who are furious as are we, how dare they simply disconnect a property and leave a shabby notice at each metre, some of which appear to have blown away.  The immediate neighbours have contacted our Comune, spoken with our mayor and been to visit their house, they are on the case as is Mario who has copies of our latest paid bills.    Just another  example of Italian inefficiency, we shouldn’t be surprised.  The water supply has always been a disaster and the quality of water is never checked, it probably doesn’t even meet EU standards.  

Goodness knows what is going to happen next but at least Mario has assured us he is taking water to our house for the cats having drained what was left in the pipe. Acea obviously didn’t give a toss whether there were animals at any of the houses when they cut us all off.  Giovanni and Milena, almost 90 years old could have moved back from Rome for spring and discovered they had no water.  We have contacted them to let them know the situation, doing the job of the heartless people at Acea.  Just another Italian crisis.