Mozambique: AdRMM claims massive theft of water

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Mozambique: AdRMM claims massive theft of water

8:22 CAT | 16 Jun 2023

Image: Evidencias

The commercial director of the Maputo Metropolitan Water Company (AdRMM), Cremildo Miguel, cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, has claimed that three out of every ten of the company’s clients make clandestine connections to the water network, causing huge losses to the Mozambican state.

This follows an AdRMM communique published in May which estimated at 25,000 the number of clients with overdue water bills, and clandestine connections to the network. This was causing the company monthly losses of 50 million meticais (about 780,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate),

AdRMM says illegal consumption of water is one of its major headaches. Some clients, it accuses, break into the network and siphon out water into tanker trucks. This water is then sold in outlying areas where AdRMM does not reach.

This situation is at its worst in Matola city and Matola-Rio, where water pipes are vandalized at dead of night, in order to fill up the tanker trucks.

The company is now launching a campaign to disconnect from the water network clients with unpaid bills.

“We have been recording cases in which we cut off the water supply in the morning, but by the end of the day, the client has reconnected his installation to the network”, said Miguel.

So the company is now opting to remove these connections altogether “to guarantee that there are no further losses”, he said.

The theft and resale of water “involves middle and high income households, and who also use clandestine water to build their own houses”, Miguel accused.

Source: AIM