The Chillán River Surveillance Board (JVRC) reported an individual to the General Directorate of Water (DGA), for the systematic theft of water from the Los Pellines canal, in the Chillán River, commune of Coihueco. This is the irregular extraction of regarding 600 liters per second, a gigantic flow compared to the 2.9 liters per second that is delivered to each river rights holder.
The JVRC board stated that this is a quarter of the riverbed that is affected. Its president, Héctor Jaque, maintained that “the Surveillance Board has repeatedly denounced the illegal extraction of water before the DGA of Ñuble, specifically for the diversion of the river towards the intake of the Los Pellines canal, where we have verified the intervention of the channel by private parties, without having a water rights title.”
The Penal Code penalizes the usurpation of water with penalties ranging from 61 days to 3 years in prison and fines ranging from 20 to 5,000 UTM, that is, from $1,295,860 to $323,000,000.
Jaque added that, “I see the theft of water with tremendous concern, we call on the regional authorities to take charge and report this irregularity to the corresponding organizations.”
Act “negligent”
The leader also recalled that “the JVRC formally filed a complaint with the DGA, which was rejected by the current regional director, who dismissed it through exempt resolution No. 645, dated June 12, 2023 and notified on June 18. October, in the middle of the irrigation period.”
Regarding the denied complaint, the legal advisor of the JVRC, Francisco Chávez, assured that “in the same rejection resolution, the regional director of the DGA stated that he will act ex officio regarding the aforementioned complaint, however, our institution verified throughout the the irrigation season that the denounced private parties continued with the river intervened on different dates. For this reason, we requested in writing the result of the investigation that was going to be carried out ex officio in the Los Pellines sector, but until today we have not had an official response from the DGA Ñuble.”
Chávez stressed that “the negligence of the DGA is harming at least 1,500 irrigators who use water rights, therefore, the official statistics that this organization is providing are distorted by the aforementioned theft of water in the Chillán River, which corresponds at 30%. And if that were not enough, the denounced private parties had already been sentenced to pay a fine that would reach $97 million, however, the DGA never sent it to the General Treasury of the Republic to collect it.”
Accordingly, the manager of the JVRC, Carlos Leiva, stated that “the Surveillance Board does what the Water Code allows and asks it to do, which is to report water theft by private parties to the DGA, but Those reported do not stop, they create obstacles to entry into the sector, making inspection by our professionals difficult.” Furthermore, Leiva expressed that “the state is the only entity that has the power and public force to intervene in these cases.”
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