Foz changes water ordinance and decouples sanitation connections

The Foz City Council has modified point 5 of article 18 of the Regulatory Ordinance of non-tax public heritage benefits (PPCPNT) for the municipal public services corresponding to the integrated water cycle. The agreement was adopted by the Municipal Corporation in an extraordinary session on June 11, 2026, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Lugo (BOP), no. 217, on September 22, 2026, with the reference R. 2500. The text is now subject to public consultation for 30 business days.

What changes in the ordinance

The modification focuses on point 5 of article 18 and introduces a new rule regarding the relationship between the services that make up the water cycle. According to the approved text, “registrations and cancellations that occur in the drinking water supply service will not automatically take effect in the sanitation network, nor in purification.”

In practice, the registration or cancellation of a subscriber in the supply service no longer automatically triggers the same movement in the sewer network and purification. Each service will now be managed independently regarding registrations and cancellations, without a change in one determining that of the other by itself.

30 business days of public consultation

The announcement is processed in compliance with article 17 of the Recast Text of the Law Regulating Local Treasuries, in relation to article 70.2 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, Regulating the Bases of the Local Regime. The public exhibition period is thirty business days and is counted from the day following the publication of the announcement in the BOP of Lugo.

During this period, the following may be submitted:

• Claims.
• Suggestions.
• Allegations.

If no claim or suggestion is submitted, the agreement will be considered definitively approved without the need to adopt a new plenary agreement. In this case, the full modified text will be published in the same Official Gazette of the Province for its entry into force.

Effects for subscribers

The regulation refers to non-tax public heritage benefits of the integrated water cycle, that is, the prices paid by users for municipal supply, sanitation, and purification services. The decoupling between services therefore affects all water cycle subscribers in the municipality.

The announcement was signed in Foz on September 16, 2026, by the acting mayor, Ángel Fernández Neira. The plenary session that approved the modification was held on June 11, 2026.

The modification arrives while the City Council is processing other files related to the water cycle. On September 21, 2026, the BOP published the approval, by mayoral decree of September 11, of the settlements for water supply, purification, and sanitation receipts, as well as the register of waste collection fees and water canons for the 4th bimester of 2026, with a public information period of twenty business days and a voluntary payment period between September 30 and November 30, 2026.

Relevance

The decision leaves the separate management of registrations and cancellations for each service in the hands of the City Council and prevents a change in the supply from automatically altering the billing for sanitation and purification. For subscribers, this may mean that the registration or cancellation of one service no longer implies that of the other, a change that will only be definitive if no objections are filed within the open period.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Lugo, no. 217, September 22, 2026, section I (City Council), p. 6 (official reference: R. 2500).