For those of you who have not noticed, please check your water bill. It appears that WEB have made a "mistake" by putting a one in front of the final cost of the bill.
I am not sure if this has happened everywhere but I do know a few people who had a bit of a shock. The cubic meter reading is correct so there can be no dispute. For example, if your bill should read 47naf, it will read 147naf.
People who have rental properties but do not live on the island and pay their bills through the bank are probably the most likely to be caught out.

For which month is the bill you refer to? My most recent bill is for October. Is the inflated bill for November?
Thanks for alerting us!!

They probably figured we're so sticker-shocked by the electricity bills that we won't notice water bill increases. Thanks for the heads up-I haven't noticed any water bill problems lately...then again, ONE of my electricity bills this month is over 7.9k fls (all bills together = are over fls 13k = appx US$7k). At least I have until Wednesday to pay.....

Ruth,
$7K!!!
Can I assume this is for a business and not a residence?

Yes, for my KFC (and all of my fryers are LP Gas). Double what I was paying 6 mos ago. My home bill is around only $1k...

1k per month! Is that for all utilities or just water?

My wife and I are thinking about moving to Bonaire in a few years and I have not started looking into utility costs yet.

we just got our mcb statement...the august WEB bills were on it. i was wondering why our water and electric was over $325 US when we weren't even there. are they planning on giving refunds? including refunds to the bank accounts? or will they just credit it against future bills?

To all that have asked specific questions. Sorry for the delayed response, I have had difficulty logging on.
The Bill in question is for November. I always check and compare with previous months as their have been problems before.
I am sure that everybody knows to keep all past bills for reference, if you can't prove it, they don't have to!

do they generally read the meters every month or do they sometimes estimate for a few months and catch up with an actual reading?

They read every month, but the people doing that have sometimes a blurred vision, so mistakes occur, (positive and negative), but faulty meter-readings are corrected automatically next month.
Funny: when they read much too high, nobody came to check it, and next month, when the bill of course was to become very low, they came to check in a few days to see if I was cheating with the connection of the waterline!!!

BTW, with my bills for november were no problems, they were high but in line with earlier bills.

Harrie

Since we recently purchased down there I must say these WEB postings are quite disconcerting..
I thought we had problems on St Croix with their Water & Power Autority (WAPA)bills.. It appears the WEB personnel may have them beat!
**Pat** How can you possibly get a bill for $325 for water & electric if no one is in your unit? Are you planning on paying the bill? Inquiring minds want to know.

vince, it's paid because it came out of our bank account. i'll check copies of the bills when we get there in february and see what i can do.

Wind farms, solar power, Bonaire has everything needed to brake away from oil. Think long term.
A dam is out of the question, think how long it would take to fill?

Think of it this way, no one wants to see the people of Bonaire have to pay $1.99 every time they flush the toilet. Glass of water .75, that's going to take place quicker then you might think. AC in the bedroom at night. $12.26. I understand gas is about $4.00 per gal. My God how far away is Venezuela? What does a gal of gas cost there? Did some Government official screw up, or take a bribe? We know here in the US our system is all screwed up, corrupt officials, way to big a government, on and on.

The people that supply Bonaire with oil, and the power Co there on Bonaire have you / us by our light bulbs, if you get my driff?

Give them some sign of competition, watch them fight like hell. Someone there is making a killing.

We love Bonaire not only for the diving, but it's people. Some must be having a very difficult time paying theses prices? I'm not talking about the people that own the $1,000,000 homes along the water, I'm talking about the small homes with three kids and dad has to work two jobs just to keep afloat.

Jerry, good point about solar and wind... is there any move on Bonaire to go that direction?

Hi
I seem to recall that within the last year, WEB made DiveInn TAKE DOWN their wind generator. Go figure that one out. My guess is pure greed.
Mickey

Mickey, no, WEB did not make Dive Inn take down their windmill. It had been inoperable for quite some time and they (Dive Inn) had it removed. It had nothing to do with WEB...

Mickey,
I remember when that was a working mill.
If I was to build a home on Bonaire it would be not be connected to the grid. Solar and wind. With today's technology, it' not a big deal. Long term cost is far less.
I wonder if the power co is so powerful that they can force you to connect to the grid? Is it a law that you have to connect?

One does not have blackouts with wind and solar with batteries for back up. With the wind and sun on Bonaire it would be a BREEZE, get it?

Earlier threads have discussed these issues.
Brigitte is the real authority on such matters, because she reads the newspapers in Dutch and Papiamentu (as well as in other languages in other countries' papers!), and she has a better memory than I do and bigger circle of people who know about such matters.
So I hope she will jump in here.
My fuzzy understanding is that WEB was punishing people for supplementing their grid power with wind or solar, and that Dive Inn stopped using the windmill long before they took it down.
WEB has recently announced that they will be developing alternative power sources. I believe Harrie translated something from Dutch and posted it on an earlier thread.
As for gasoline costs, I have read accounts which blame a roughly 100% tax imposed on our gas, plus a system which forces Bonaire to subsidize Curacao's gas costs.
The politics are complex, but at least part, maybe all of the inflated gas costs here can be blamed on Curacao, which is probably one reason why voters here have chosen to leave the Netherlands Antilles as of July 2007. Curacao controls that NA government; it has more votes in that government than all four of the other islands put together, so it has used that majority to govern for the good of its own people. Add to that some instances of governmental corruption on Curacao on both the island and NA governments, and Bonaire has often been shortchanged. For instance, we pay our taxes to the NA, and we do not get back in services an appropriate proportion of what we pay.
The good news is that the NA will be gone in 18 months, and a new (and we hope wonderful) day will dawn for Bonaire.
Again, I'm not the authority in these matters, so I hope Brigitte, Harrie and others will jump in and correct me and supplement.
Jerry, I know people who live in the Kunuku who are off the grid, so I assume there is no such law forcing people to connect.

WEB stopped them from using it years ago. I think they got to a point where they (Dive inn) was selling power back into the system?
There meter was turning counter clock wise.

WEB wanted no part of that. Instead of sending out a bill, they had to send them a check.
What a deal

tish, we also know people in the kunuku who use solar power and cisterns. i guess they aren't forced to connect but we have also heard that if you have access to the grid you aren't allowed to supplement with wind or solar power. we know people who collect rainwater, hundreds of gallons at a time, for non-drinking water. you can recognize them...they have the really clean trucks.

Dive Inn has been in business for 22 years and the Wind Mill has never worked during that time. Babs had it removed for insurance reasons. The generating mechanism was frozen and the repair was too expensive. This information is from Babs the owner/operater of Dive Inn... Ron

Thanks Ron,
I'm going back some 25+years. That's when goats use to walk through down town all day long. Very few cars. Everything came to a dead stop between 12-3.

Thanks, Ron! Rumors take on a life of their own, don't they?
Not too many months back, Jerry, I came out of the airport and found a whole herd of goats around my car there. Bonaire can still seem rural, except in town when everybody is trying to leave work at the same time. That's when I start feeling Bonaire might have to invest in some traffic lights.

WEB and self generating electricity and/or water.

After some discussions with people of WEB (managing people) I know following.

1. They will never accept the back-delivery of electrical power that you generate too much. This is an important point, because it could make the investment for a windmill or solar-cells more interesting.
2, They will not accept a connection to the grid when you also make your own power. Which means that you cannot fall back to WEB at those moments that there is no wind and/or no sun. This means that you need huge and expensive battery-back-up-systems with a short life-cycle in the tropics, which makes your investment bigger and even less profitable. I know people who have a self-supporting system for electricity down in the Kunuku. They are several times per year out of power, and have to supply power then from a generator, also expensive and not easy; or go for a visit to people that still have a connection to the grid.............. (like us).
3. It would be very easy to make your own water from sea-water, when you live near the coast, by a simple reverse-osmoses system. This is also not allowed, I understood because of Stinapa, and the reason is very trivial. When you use reverse-osmoses, you get a portion of very clean water, and another portion of water with more pollution (and more salt) then the original supplied sea-water, which is pumped back into the ocean. So you would be polluting the sea, and that is not allowed. But I know there is at least one reverse-osmoses system working at this moment, perhaps more. If you do it sneaky-sneaky nobody would find out, unless they want to know why you are not using any water anymore.

And then, about gas-prices, in Dutch eyes gasoline is really cheap on Bonaire, I paid yesterday in the Netherlands €1.30 per litre, and I think (but I´m not sure) one gallon is about 4.5 litres, which means about US$ 7.00 per gallon !!! BTW: this was a "cheap" filling-station, at the highways you pay even more.

And another remark, Don't think too positive about Bonaire being part of the Netherlands after 2007. The Dutch Government has to generate the money somewhere, so our taxes will become higher, just like in Holland, where they are about the highest in the world.... An important positive thing would be that money that comes for Bonaire will not be used in Curacao, as happens now.


Harrie

Thanks, Harrie! As always, you're a wonderful fund of information!!

Oh Tish, please!

When I tell people what is important for me on Bonaire I always say:
"No traffic lights, no parking meters, and no roundabouts".
OK we have two traffic lights on the porch of two restaurants, and one roundabout, that is not really a roundabout. So please none of those, I wouldn't know what else positive things to tell my friends about Bonaire!!!!

OK joking, but it tells something about the relaxed atmosphere on this heaven on earth...

It is easier to avoid the "rush-hours", in stead of installing traffic-lights.


Harrie

No,No,please no traffic lights!
I'm not sure if the Dive Inn was even there at the time? There were more homes along that road. The wind mill was working back then. I don't remember when it stopped. The road to the airport was direct to town, no big loop around the CC dikes. 18 palms had 19 trees in a row, like pink beach. 18 big trees one small. I think someone planted it to drive everyone nuts, cause everyone counted the 18 palms. So the question is,who put up the wind mill and when? When did it stop working? We need some OLDERtimers here.

Harrie
Not quite as expensive as you said ,but not cheap by US standards.
1.30 Euros per liter X 3.8 liters per gallon=4.94 Euros per gallon.
1.18 dollars per Euro=$5.82 per gallon. I think its at about $4.12 in Bonaire now. Is that right?
I too remember that windmill working and my first thought was "That wasn't 22 years ago" but after thinking bit I realized it was not less than 20 years ago. Time flies when your having fun!
Mickey

Mickey,

OK, less liters in a gallon, but for one €uro you will pay more then 1.18, my (dutch) Internet-converter said 1.25, So think about over US$ 6,00 per gallon. I don't know what the gas is at Bonaire, I always just fill for NAf 25,--- (LOL) but it must be something like you said.


Sometime ago I heard someone telling me what gas is in Venezuela, I don't remember exactly, but I thought something like €0,25 per liter, which is a bit over US$ 1.-- per gallon !

Thanks for correcting me

Harrie

You obviously have not been trying to make a turn anywhere in Playa at noon and at 5 recently. impossible! Nothing relaxed about it.

Tish, stop it, you are scaring the first-timers! LOL!

Harrie, I have no idea how accurate this information is, but I met a couple this October at Wannadive. They quit their jobs 5 years ago to sail their boat. They said that gas in Venezuela was only 12 cents a gallon. I questioned her about it more and she said their cost is so low that they can afford to do that. I would love to know if that is accurate or not. But even $1.00 a gallon would be heaven...

Anyone have any information on that?

Harrie, it's nice to see you posting by the way. We only met briefly at Jake and Linda's old place in Hato, but I really enjoyed meeting you!
(I'm sure I retrieved Blikje from your beach too... sorry..)

And I agree with the others, NO traffic lights, ever ! I will come to Bonaire and picket!

Kelly:
Oh it is absolutely possible that it is even cheaper then what I thought. I always mix up the €uro and the NAf, and my memory-cells are getting old and drowned by the alcohol..... It is true that far out the biggest amount of the gas-price doesn't come from the raw oil, but from governments that found an easy way to make money on it. Whatever Chavez does, in that field it is better in Venezuela then on most other places on earth.
BTW I am a very impulsive poster on BT, you can see me very often, sometimes, and then not for months. I like this board very much.

Tish:
I know about the busy traffic at rush-hours in Playa, have been there, seen it all, and avoid it always. And I would suggest the tourists to avoid it too.
And when I actually by mistake are in that traffic, I put on my brutal glasses, and drive like an idiot, as most locals do, and it isn't this bad. Never been in the western part of Holland in rush-hour probably, traffic-lights don't make it easier there.......

Harrie

And this board likes you very much too, Harrie!

Okay, if not traffic lights, then people to direct traffic. Otherwise, we are going to start having bad auto accidents in Playa, as drivers tire of waiting 20 minutes to turn out of parking lots. Avoiding the traffic jams isn't always possible, and the poor people who work in town don't have enough time to prepare and eat lunch because they arrive home shortly before they must leave to return to work. The traffic jams at 5 are even worse, especially in winter when additional tourists add to the number of cars and oblivious cruise ship passengers think the streets are for pedestrians. Harrie, remind me not to get into a car with you at rush hour.

Is there any talk of public transport? Perhaps shuttle buses in and out of Playa to parking lots at the edge of town, residential neighborhoods, and up and down the hotel strips. How about a few non-polluting electric mini-buses that do continuous loops on several different routes? On Bermuda there is a limit to the number of cars a household can own, tourists are not allowed to rent cars (I‘m not suggesting this for Bonaire), and they have a clean, safe, reliable, public transport system. I know, all it would take is money.

If you drive around Bonaire's barios you will spot bus stops. Shuttle buses stop there early morning and return people to them after work. These shuttles are used by people who do not have cars or whose cars are not working. The traffic jams occur in Playa despite these buses.
Of course, a true public transport system does not exist here yet. An effective model exists on Aruba.
Maybe somebody who wants to move to Bonaire and start a business could consider this one.

Re cost of gasoline in V. It costs the Gulf states less than $3. to deliver each 44 gallon barrel of crude oil to a ship, which pays $60-odd dollars a barrel, the price we hear quoted. So $0.12 a gallon for gasoline in-country is very possible. And, of course, the $60/barrel we pay subsidizes V!