Vivaqua offers monthly billing to help users budget

Brussels residents who want to avoid the shock of an annual water bill can now opt to pay for their water use monthly.

Water supplier Vivaqua has begun offering monthly billing to customers who sign up for a new online platform called Doccle, which centralises bill payments and administrative formalities for several public bodies and utility firms including Telenet.

Customers who opt for the new system are charged a monthly estimate based on their year's water use. Any surplus or deficit is billed at the end of the year after the meter is read.

So far, Vivaqua said 5,700 customers had opted for monthly billing. The procedure is entirely online - no paper bills are sent in the post but they can be downloaded as PDFs.

Vivaqua chief financial officer Yves Bourdeau said: "This system makes it easier for households to sort out their monthly budget and better understand how much water they are actually consuming."