The gloves have finally come off. Battling Loulé residents cut off from their water by “ruthless” supplier Infralobo have at last seen a lawyer with teeth taking up their case.
Campos Rodrigues has filed the issue with the Arbitration Court of the Algarve, in Faro.
The first result of this “should be that Infralobo is asked to reconnect all the people it has cut off”, a source working for Rodrigues explained.
“There is no guarantee that Infralobo will do it of course, but I presume that if they don’t, it will be another point against them,” she said.
The plan is to show clearly that Infralobo has been ‘getting away with murder’, the source added.
All that has to be explained is that it is in breach of the law by forcing people to sign contracts that have “illegal clauses”.
The situation that has seen numerous households cut off from water for refusing to pay a ‘bed tax’ that can take bills into hundreds every month before even a tap is turned on has been bounced around the region’s courts for months.
But now, Campos Rodrigues is confident the bouncing will stop.
“I am very curious on how they will get out of this one,” he has told the residents fighting for a fair deal. “The point is, not only there are no laws which may give any cover on what they (Infralobo) have been claiming but, on the contrary, the existing laws are very clear that what they are doing is totally forbidden.”
