The theft of water from the aqueduct It is a crime that has been increasing in the Atlántico department.
With the losses caused, more than 900 Olympic swimming pools can be filled or the fluid can be supplied to the municipality of Baranoa for a whole year.
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For the month of May 2023, it is estimated that commercial losses in Atlántico were around 3 million cubic meters, which represent approximately 19 billion pesos. Of those losses, only Barranquilla represents 58%.
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This is confirmed by reports of the triple A companyby denouncing that only in the year 2022, 8,348 irregularities were identified in Barranquilla, Soledad, Sabanalarga, and the eastern zone and coastal aqueduct.
More than 200 fraudulent connections have been detected in the coastal aqueduct.
Atlántico Government Press
But the issue does not end there. As of June 2023, 3,913 irregularities in the department have been detected and cancelled.
They use technology to stop fraud
The company reported that it has incorporated technological tools for the detection of leaks and fraud.
This is how he reports that they work with equipment such as macro meters with telemetry to measure pipes and circuits, correlators, georadar, geophoneamong others.
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These equipments are used to perform water balances and identify where the greatest losses are.
Illegal connections are throughout the department of Atlántico.
Atlantic Governorate
“The meters with telemetry throw alarms that indicate if there is a possible manipulation or if we have a counterflow and the georadar helps us to identify unauthorized connections and the geophone for leaks”, indicates the company report delivered to TIME.
Triple A assured that together with the Environmental Police, Surveillance and the Prosecutor’s Office, “they have carried out operations with which they seek to capture in flagrante delicto individuals or companies that make irregular manipulations of our networks and therefore commit the crime of defrauding fluids,” he points out.
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