In one of Abu Dhabi's most exclusive gated communities, there is growing concern of residents regarding the excessive charges imposed by a new company for chilled water. In a report from The National, residents are questioning the "infrastructure service charge" being imposed that have resulted in ballooning billings in the past months.

The said exclusive communities are Al Bandar, Al Raha, Al Muneera and Al Zeina beach communities. They had engaged the services of Tasleem, which replaced the old firm Dimarco, for the district's water cooling services. The bone of contention is the 'infrastructure service charge'.

According to one resident of Al Zeina, a British national with the initials M.W., "In effect, this has increased our monthly chilled water charge by between 50 and 300 percent. In my case, it's a 132 percent increase."

These figures translate to paying just UAD260 per month to Dimarco and now is being billed UAD600 per month by Tasleem. The difference between the two amounts is the infrastructure charge.

He added, "Without Tasleem's infrastructure charge, it would still be a 35 percent increase over Dimarco. But with the warmer weather of late,  I could accept this. I would liken this to staying in a hotel, then having my room rate doubled to cover hotel maintenance."

Another resident of Al Zeina, this time I.S from the Netherlands, suggested  that the charges should be based on consumption. In her case, the metered charge was UAD44.09 while the infrastructure charge was at UAD288.

She said, "The more you use the more you pay. Also this means that clients that are environmentally conscious are better off."

Still another Al Muneera resident this time, in a report from UAENews, related that he during Dimarco's time, he paid between UAD1,000 and UAD1,200 for consumption charges. He lives in a three bedroom apartment. He narrated, "My bill for July was UAD354, where UAD66 is for consumption and UAD288 for what they call infrastructure service charge."

He added, "It's unbelievable. You cannot change the company name, provide the same service and ask four times more than what we were paying before."