People were grateful for the assistance and expressed appreciation for the government’s role in easing coronavirus stress.

With many people losing their jobs due to business closures in response to the spread of coronavirus, finances are likely becoming tough for many throughout the world. At the same time, being holed-in at home likely means that people are using more electricity, gas, and water, which will ultimately result in higher bills. As these costs mount to the point of financial strain, many people are likely wondering how they’re going to make ends meet for the next few months.

Luckily for citizens of Kariya City in Aichi prefecture in west-central Japan, water bills, at least, won’t cause any more stress. In order to relieve some of the financial strain on their residents, the city has decided to reduce charges for water and sewer services for all residents and businesses in the city for four months.

Depending on the area of Kariya City in which they live, residents will have reduced water bills for either the period of March to June, or April to July. Different areas get billed differently, but essentially that means that everyone who receives water and sewage bills between May and August will pay less. Depending on their usage, residents could pay as little as 1,078 yen (US$10) for two months of water, and everyone will pay a flat rate of 1,540 yen for two months of sewer service.

▼ After Twitter user @seiz0671 tweeted about it while watching the news on TV, the new policy became a hot topic on Twitter. The screenshot says, “The average household will see a reduction of 6,400 yen from their bill.”

https://twitter.com/seiz0671/status/1251117644083679233

There is no procedure to sign up for the discounts; payees will automatically receive the reductions in their bills starting in May. Twitter users who saw the news on TV and Twitter were really grateful, and praised the city for its thoughtful action:

”Kariya City did it!!! Water bill reductions for four months!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!”
“The mayor really loves his people! The head of the waterworks bureau must be very generous. This is politics that helps people in times of trouble.”
“This is what the government is supposed to do. Their ability to save the people when they’re in trouble will be tested, I think.”
“The government wouldn’t be able to do this if we had privatized water.”
“That’s it! There must be tons of other ways like this to directly assist people’s lives. This will make people’s worries disappear way faster than Abe’s wasteful mask idea.”
“Let’s expand it to the whole country.”

Though some people might be against the government using its funds to provide public assistance, in times of crisis everyone benefits from and appreciates proactive government action like this. Hopefully this helps ease a lot of residents’ worries, because every little bit helps in these stressful times!

Source: Twitter/@zeiz0671 via Hachima Kiko, Kariya City Homepage
Top image: Pakutaso