A court in Pará ordered Águas do Pará on Sunday morning to take immediate emergency steps to restore water supply and provide transparency about the system failure affecting Belém. The ruling by Judge Diana Cristina Ferreira da Cunha set deadlines backed by fines of up to 250,000 reais.
The case reached the court after the Belém city government's legal office filed a request on Saturday night. Residents in about 20 neighborhoods had reported having no water over the weekend. The dispute began after maintenance that the concessionaire initially scheduled from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday in five neighborhoods; the service left several Belém neighborhoods without supply. The city argued that the delay and lack of clear information harmed residents.
Under the ruling, Águas do Pará must within two hours present a detailed technical report by neighborhood and publish on official channels the list of affected areas and water distribution points, updating it every six hours. Within six hours, it must ensure emergency supply via tanker trucks, prioritizing hospitals, health centers, shelters and bedridden people. Within 12 hours, it must show the court the actions taken, detailing routes and the volume of water distributed.
Águas do Pará said it had not yet been notified of the decision and that supply had been fully normalized in all affected neighborhoods since late Saturday afternoon. The company said the interruption was needed for a high-complexity technical intervention on the distribution network in the Condor neighborhood. It said work began at 8 p.m. Friday and ended at 5 p.m. Saturday, with 33 professionals. It listed Comércio, Campina, Cidade Velha, Reduto, Batista Campos, Jurunas, Umarizal, Nazaré, Guamá, Cremação, Condor, São Brás, Fátima, Terra Firme, Canudos and parts of Pedreira and Marco as normalized. During the stoppage, it maintained emergency tanker service mainly for essential services, regretted the disruption and said it remains in dialogue with the city and the state public services regulator Arcon.
Sources: G1.