The Chisinau municipal water utility is constantly discovering illegal couplings to the municipal water and sewage system. So far this year, the figure rises to 749 cases. Apa-Canal Chisinau urges the people to be responsible and to give up such illegal practices, IPN reports.

According to ACC, its Commission for examining violations of water supply and wastewater drainage accounts looked at the abovementioned cases. 398 of them are illegal connections to public networks, most of the to the sewage networks. Each case is examined carefully by the Commission in order to calculate the amount of water involved. The conclusions are then sent to the administrative commission for prices, which sets the fines for each case.

The utility says that such illegal connections, which are basically thefts of water, are discovered by its employees during regular checkups. However, until discovered, such connections endanger the water supply for all the consumers. Most of these connections don’t meet basic technical requirements. Opening or closing reinforcements are usually lacking. Pipe installation rules for preventing their freezing during winter are ignored. This can cause network failures and low water pressure.

In case of failures caused by illegal connections, the water supply can be cut off for whole streets during the repair works, to the displeasure of thousands of consumers. Sometimes the network pressure is low because illegal connections can cause uncontrolled discharges of wastewater, which overloads the network’s functioning and the wastewater pumping stations.

To prevent such cases, the utility urges consumers to notify ACC representatives about illegal connections to the public water supply and sewage networks by calling 022-256-980 or writing to acc@acc.md.