The national ombudsman is worried that people in Amsterdam who could not pay their water board bills because of the administrative chaos at Waternet will now face debt as demands pour in, the Telegraaf reported on Friday.

The Amstel, Gooi and Vecht (AGV) water board, whose bills are administrated by water company Waternet, serves some 1.4 million people. The chaos at the company has resulted in triple billing, and high water tax bills all arriving in the post in a short period of time.

The problems at Waternet started with the introduction of a new billing system in 2021 which could not be made to work, leading the water company to issue 2021, 2022 and 2023 bills at the same time.

“I received three payment requests in seven months, some €1,200 in total,” local resident Richard Ruimschoot told the paper. Other residents told Dutch News they have received all three demands within a couple of days.

The ombudsman has received many complaints about the matter. “The fact that they haven’t paid their bills for years does not mean they can produce the money all in one go. People can get into financial problems because of this,” a spokeswoman said.

The lack of transparency about how bills are calculated is an additional problem, she said.

In July the AGV announced an unusually big increase of 35% in water taxes for 2024.

“We understand this is bad news for all concerned. The honest truth about this is that the rates have been too low and that our reserves have all but dried up,” administrator Simon Deurloo said at the time. The hike is necessary to handle the effects of climate change, he said.