WHAT ARE ILLEGAL WATER SERVICE CONNECTIONS?

By Benjamin A. Buenaflor & Yusop B. Masdal, ZCWD Legal Department

Campaign Against Illegal Water Service Connections

The Zamboanga City Water District (ZCWD) is presently involved in a massive campaign to put a stop and eradicate all forms of illegalities relating to water service connections. Under Republic Act No. 8041, otherwise known as the “National Water Crisis Act of 1995”, several acts relating to water service connection are considered illegal acts that are punishable by fines and imprisonment.

These acts mainly involve direct tapping to water mains and tampering of water meters to include specific violations termed as:

1) Unauthorized Re-Opening of Closed/Abandoned Water Service Connection
2) Direct Tapping
3) By Pass Connections
4) Tampering of Water Meter
5) Reversing of Water Meter
6) Illegal Dismounting of Water Meter
7) Illegal Use of Booster Pump

Illegal water service connections contribute to non-revenue water (NRW), water that is wasted away thru unrepaired leakages in the distribution lines as well as thru the pilfering of water meters.

In these circumstances, the viability of ZCWD is highly jeopardized, which in the end, would seriously affect the service that we provide our concessionaires and the public in general.

Furthermore, illegal water connections jeopardies water supply in general and bring great inconvenience to the community, where their prevalence resulting to low water pressure immediate vicinities. Also, these illegal connections pose health hazards in the form of contamination in the supply of water.

Considering the foregoing, the ZCWD is seeking the support of Barangays throughout the city, to be vigilant against illegal water connections and to report such incidence to our Office.  With the help of the community and the public in general, our drive against the widespread problem of illegal water connection may be successfully accomplished. B. Forms of Illegal Water Service Connections

For your information, instances of illegal water connections are the following:

1. Direct Tapping of Pipeline or the Unauthorized Re-Opening of Closed/Abandoned Water Service Connection is the tapping at ZCWD pipeline without its consent or the unauthorized reopening of a closed water service connection brought about by the non-payment of water bills.
2. Tampering of Water Meter is a form of illegal connection wherein the perpetrators tampers their water meter in order to reduce its registration of their consumption.
3. By-Pass Connection is a form of illegal connection that is usually done to draw water in a way that the water meter is bypassed.
4. Reversed Water Meter is the deliberate reversing of water meter in order to alter and reduce registration of water consumption.
5. Illegal Dismounting of Water Meter is the deliberate removal of water meter from the angle meter valve in order to draw water directly from the water service connection; and
6. Illegal Use of Booster Pump is the use of pump that draws water directly from the water meter (without sump tank) thus affecting the water pressure as well as the quality of water.  Illegal use of booster pump usually contaminates ZCWD water.

Penalties/Fines

Republic Act No. 8041 provides that all forms of illegal water connections are punishable by imprisonment from six (6) months to two (2) years with a fine not exceeding double the amount of the value of water stolen or the value of the damaged facilities.

Moreover, it is also the policy of the ZCWD to collect from customers the value of broken or lost water meter; hence customers are advised to help the District address this form of pilferages by installing protective grills/boxes at their water meters or by checking out its condition every now and then.

Presently, the ZCWD allows compromise settlement of illegal connection cases by allowing the violators to pay the corresponding penalties as well as other administrative charges, without reaching the courts of law.

The penalties range from Php 1,000.00 to as high as Php 1,000,000.00 depending on type, extent and duration of the violation, the computation of which are based on the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of R.A. 8041.