Residents of Rocinha, in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, held a protest this afternoon, Thursday (16), due to a lack of energy in the community that has lasted at least a week. According to the Military Police, the demonstration began around 6pm and closed the Lagoa-Barra highway in both directions.
The demonstration did not record any cases of violence or clashes between residents and security forces. After the action of the UPP teams, the lane towards Lagoa was reopened. The lane towards Barra da Tijuca remains obstructed.
According to the Rio Operations Center, the closure of the road caused traffic jams in the region and impacted traffic in nearby neighborhoods such as Lagoa, Jardim Botânico and Ipanema, and Avenida Niemeyer.
Light, the company responsible for energy distribution, informed in a note that it remains with teams in Rocinha to carry out the necessary repairs and that the system failures are caused by network overload following clandestine connections.
Light Positioning
“Light remains with teams in Rocinha to carry out the necessary repairs. In the last week alone, there were 127 incidents in the community, caused by overload on the electricity grid due to the high rate of illegal connections, where energy theft is 83.74%.
Light’s transformers – configured and installed to serve the concessionaire’s 14,485 customers in that region (where more than 87 thousand residents live, according to IBGE data from 2022) – burn out, causing a lack of light.
Light works daily to curb this practice in regions where it can operate safely. In communities, the distributor’s teams carry out the necessary repairs in partnership with the public authorities, the police and the Residents’ Associations.”
Source: CNN Brasil

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