Cities across US vow to keep water on despite unpaid bills during coronavirus pandemic
As coronavirus sweeps the United States, health officials and medical personnel are echoing the same refrain: wash your hands.
Use soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Sing a song to keep track. “Happy Birthday” twice or a portion of Elvis Presley’s “Jail House Rock” (fitting for anyone having to self-quarantine) will do, according to CNN.
There’s even a website that generates a tailor-made poster featuring your song of choice, TIME reported.
Now officials are trying to make it even easier.
Knowing access to clean water is key to preventing the spread of coronavirus, utilities companies across the United States announced this week that water services — and electrical services, in some cases — won’t be disconnected, even if your bill goes unpaid.
The mayor of Seattle, the so-called “epicenter” of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, said March 10 that water and electrical services city-wide will stay on, the Seattle Times reported.
Customers will be able to set up deferred payment plans with their utilities, and “their services will stay on as those plans are put together,” according to the newspaper.
The following day, San Antonio utilities issued a similar announcement.
No confirmed cases of COVID-19 had reached the city, but the San Antonio Express-News reported a city councilman had pushed officials to take action early. Both the city’s energy and water providers subsequently announced they would keep services on during the pandemic.
A slew of cities in the Midwest and on the East Coast had followed suit by Thursday, media outlets reported.
Detroit officials announced the state of Michigan would cover the cost of restarting service for those who already had their water cut off. Customers will owe $25 a month after it’s turned back on, but nothing will be due “until after the COVID-19 situation passes,” the city said.
Houston officials said they wouldn’t turn off any residents’ water through April 30, Fox26 reported, and the City of Monroe in Louisiana vowed to keep it on for at least the next 60 days, according to the Monroe News Star.
Tuscon, Arizona, also opted to suspend city water shut-offs and late fees, KVOA reported. Tallahassee, Florida, and Phoenix have done something similar, according to media outlets.
In North Carolina, officials in Raleigh, Charlotte and Winston-Salem said Thursday they’d keep water services on while the spread of coronavirus remains ongoing.
Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas — utilities servicing homes and businesses in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee — announced they too would suspend disconnecting services, citing customers’ “unusual financial hardship.”
By Friday, the mayor of Aurora, Illinois, had joined them, opting to suspend disconnections for the next 30 days, NBC Chicago reported.
Kentucky American Water, which services the central and eastern regions of the state, also said Friday it would turn on water where it’s been otherwise cut off and keep services running for the time being, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Utility officials said the decision was part of “an effort to make sure people have water and can continue to wash their hands during the coronavirus outbreak,” according to the Herald-Leader.
More are likely to follow suit.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stressed the COVID-19 virus has not been detected in drinking water.
“Conventional water treatment methods that use filtration and disinfection, such as those in most municipal drinking water systems, should remove or inactivate the virus that causes COVID-19,” the CDC says on its website.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 2:37 PM.
