Motel chains and gyms were targeted this Tuesday (25) in an operation to combat water supply fraud in Minas Gerais. Operation Waterfall II inspected 18 commercial establishments in Belo Horizonte and the Metropolitan Region (RMBH). Two other establishments were identified during the work.
It is estimated that there are around 120,000 illegal water connections in the region.
The task force was carried out by the Minas Gerais Sanitation Company (Copasa), the State Department of Justice and Public Security (Sejusp) and the security forces on Tuesday morning (25).
The targets were motel chains and gyms in the capital, Santa Luzia, Sabará and Contagem. The inspected locations were identified by the Intelligence sector of Copasa’s technical staff, by crossing the consumption profile and size of the establishments.
Of the 20 locations inspected, fraud was found in nine of them. Five people were taken away by police authorities.
The volume of water loss due to leaks and fraud committed in the networks is 480 liters/day per connection, according to Copasa’s Director of Customer Relations and Regulation, Cleyson Jacomini.
“It is important to highlight that, when there is a water diversion process, this affects the community both by causing imbalance in the system and by causing risks of water contamination due to incorrect use of connections. When we have to send water to a certain region, we have the parameter of who our regular customer is. If I have an irregular customer and he is not economically concerned, that is, he spends freely by not paying, this unbalances the supply, especially in regions further away from water producing units, such as Ribeirão das Neves, Esmeraldas and Pedro Leopoldo”, Jacomini explained.
Coordinated by Sejusp, Operation Waterfall II mobilized around 160 professionals from the institutions involved – Copasa, Sejusp, Military and Civil Police.
Sanctions
Clandestine water connections constitute the crime of theft qualified by fraud, provided for in Article 155, paragraph 4, II of the Brazilian Penal Code. The penalty is imprisonment for one to four years and a fine. If any irregularity is identified in the property’s facilities, the Company’s technicians or authorized teams carry out operational procedures and issue the “Term of Irregularity Occurrence – TOI”, which guarantees the consumer, within 15 days, the right to full defense (resource).
All procedures are carried out in accordance with Normative Resolutions 149 and 170 of Arsae-MG, which approved the amounts of sanctions, reimbursements and recovery of unbilled volume.
Source: CNN Brasil
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