They locate in Jalisco more than 4,000 intakes for water theft


Between 2010 and April 2022 in Jalisco, 4,606 clandestine connections to drinking water pipelines have been registered, according to data from the entity’s Intermunicipal System of Drinking Water Services (SIAPA).

Water theft from drinking water pipelines has occurred, through this type of illegal tapping, in four municipalities: Guadalajara, where 1,657 openings (36%) have been accounted for in the aforementioned period.

Zapopan with 1,406 (31%); Tlaquepaque, where 976 (21%) have been registered, and in Tonalá, 567 (12%) outlets were located here, according to the Jalisco authorities.

According to the data presented in the report EXP.UT/SIAPA/269/2022 and the official letter UT/557/2022 obtained by El Economista, between 2020 and 2021 there is an increase in the number of illegal taps for water theft. drinking water, going from 213 to 286, that is, an increase of 34 percent.

2021 is, in fact, the year with the highest number of clandestine taps to drinking water pipelines in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area since 2017, when 345 were recorded.

If the data is analyzed by municipality, between 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in registrations in two of the four: in Guadalajara, illegal intakes for water theft increased 41.7%, going from 91 to 129, and in Zapopan they increased. 81% from 58 to 105 records.

While in Tonalá they decreased 33% when going from 27 to 18 and in Tlaquepaque 8% when registering 37 in 2020 and 34 in 2021.

The year with the highest number of illegal taps for water theft, between 2010 and 2021, is 2011, when 852 were located.

For its part, for this 2022, between January and last April, 60 illegal seizures have been registered: 40 in Guadalajara; 11 in Zapopan, six in Tonalá and three in Tlaquepaque.

Stolen liquid and complaints

In the file, SIAPA indicated that the amount of water stolen through the clandestine intakes detected cannot be known.

“We inform that we do not have a quantification, as requested by the applicant, basically derived from its complexity and impossibility, in addition, to consider variables such as the time of the same (illegal intake), the diameter and the hydraulic pressure, among others” , it was specified.

The lack of a detection system, said José Antonio Gómez Reyna, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies for the Development of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Guadalajara, is one of the main problems to be solved.

If we had the entire measurement system through pressure or flow systems in each of the branches, we would be able to know, but it turns out that SIAPA does not even sometimes know where the pipes are, so much less will they know what the percentages will be. of secrecy. If you don’t have a measurement system, then how do you know how much water you’re losing,” he asserted.

The specialist added that the number of illegal taps could be even higher than what is officially registered.

Due to the illegal takings, the SIAPA reported that data was found on 16 complaints, filed between 2019 and until April 2022, by the Legal Directorate, which have been for “equated theft before local authorities, which are in the stage of investigation. integration”.

lack of supply

According to SIAPA, among the reasons for the lack of water supply in Jalisco are from droughts, the same clandestine intakes, to “high consumption of the population that generates a drop in pressure and even suspension of the service.”

He added that other reasons for shortages are leaks, natural phenomena such as tremors and floods, as well as “works by individuals that cause breaks in the lines due to heavy machinery.”

Regarding leaks, the researcher explained that in Guadalajara there are losses between 30 and 40% of the water supply.

“It cannot be possible that an entire system that was operating falls down after an administration came in. If you had 30 neighborhoods and suddenly there are 400 or 500 without water and instead of it being one day there are going to be 15 or 20 and then the inhabitants say that it is cloudy and bad, then you realize that the operation of the people It has a lot to do with it,” he said.

[email protected]



Leave a Comment