By Osmar da Fonseca
Africa-Press – Angola. The loss of water mining in EPAL’s technical network, in 2023, exceeded the figure of 250 million kwanzas, a fact that increases the rate of product waste and undermines the functioning of the water supply system in Luanda.
According to the company’s director of Communication, Marketing and Institutional Relations, Vladimir Henda Bernardo, the largest sources of water mining remain in the municipalities of Talatona, Kilamba Kiaxi, Viana and Cacuaco.
The person responsible explained that, in addition to the waste of drinking water and the impact on the company’s finances, mining creates damage to the environment, contributing to the degradation of the State’s infrastructure.
This practice, punishable by law, greatly affects the conservation of roads and sidewalks, as well as being a source of contamination of the water that reaches the final consumer, putting public health at risk.
In addition to water mining, explains the spokesperson for the Luanda Water Company (EPAL), the institution has been severely affected by practices of vandalizing equipment on the network, specifically the theft of meters, damage to hydraulic devices, such as valves and suction cups, as well as destruction of pumping houses.
Of the main losses caused by mining activities and vandalization of the network and equipment, the person responsible indicated the difficulty of improving the water distribution coverage rate, network maintenance, poor collection and invoicing.
To mitigate these actions and restore order, the director said that during the past year, EPAL carried out several joint actions with the National Police, Criminal Investigation Services (SIC) and municipal administrations.
These actions, he explains, focused on Calemba 2, Rua da Castrol, Sapu II, Vila Kiaxi (Talatona) and the Bairro 28 de Agosto (Kilamba Kiaxi) neighborhoods, where more than 100 connections were deactivated in residences that practiced mining and selling illegal water supply, with seizures of the means involved and detections of perpetrators.
For advocates, EPAL defends the intensification of penalization measures, as a way of discouraging these harmful practices.
Customers owe Kz 120 billion
Meanwhile, the accumulated debt of customers of the Empresa Pública de Águas de Luanda (EPAL) is estimated at 120 billion kwanzas, according to Vladimir Bernardo.
In a brief assessment of the 2023 financial year, he revealed that around 85 percent of the total debt is concentrated on private customers, mainly in peri-urban neighborhoods and centralities.
According to the director, the centralities, which receive water 24/24 hours, benefit from the supply of the product, with some interruption between 8 am and 6 pm, but only 44% of customers pay for consumption.
He said that the company has 410 thousand customers, of which 400 are individuals and 10 are businesses. Of this total number of consumers, less than 45% pay for consumption to EPAL.
To change the current situation of customer debt, Vladimir Henda Bernardo reiterated that the company has reached out to customers directly, and promotes awareness campaigns so that they can negotiate their debts.
EPAL has 21 collection agencies, including one virtual, where customers can check their current account and make the respective payments, combined with Multicaixa Express, ATMs and commercial bank services.
Among the measures to counteract and contain the increase in debt, the spokesperson revealed that EPAL, on an experimental basis, set up some prepaid meters in the centralities of Kilamba, Km 44, Sequele and Oito mil, which are giving positive results.
Regarding this initiative, the communications director made it known that these centralities that have experimented with the prepaid meter system will have these control devices in full this year. Along the same path, EPAL will install prepaid meters in large consumers, places where technical surveys have already been carried out.
Created through Decree No. 72-A/01, of October 5, 1995, the Public Water Company, EPAL – EP has the mission of providing the public water supply service within a framework of efficiency, with environmental sustainability, economic and social, contributing to improving the quality of life of citizens.
Mining damages EPAL by more than 250 million kwanzas
ANGOP journalist
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
