In the surrounding areas of the city, some water thieves steal water by privately connecting the municipal pipe network, destroying the water meter, flipping the pointer, flipping the water meter, and even "cloneing" the water meter. These are not only a serious impact on the public water environment. At the same time, stealing water also causes a lot of instability and unsafe factors to the water thieves themselves, and the water quality and water pressure of the water thieves cannot be guaranteed. So what are defined as the misappropriation of a city's public water supply?​​

Stealing urban public water supply: refers to the act of stealing urban public water supply by illegal means for the purpose of illegal possession. Among the more typical "stealing water" behaviors include:
1. Stealing water from public water supply pipes and auxiliary facilities without authorization;
2. Stealing water by bypassing the settlement water metering device of a public water supply enterprise;
3. Unauthorized activation of fire hydrants and non-meter fire prevention devices to steal water;
4. Stealing water by connecting the water supply pipeline system of self-built facilities with the public water supply network system without authorization;
5. Unauthorized dismantling (or counterfeiting) of lead-sealed water meters, unauthorized opening, modification, flipping and moving of water meters to steal water;
6. Unauthorized damage to the lead seal on the settlement water meter device of the water supply enterprise, modification or forgery of metering data to steal water;
7. Unauthorized removal, modification, replacement, destruction, installation of cheating devices, and the use of settlement water metering devices that do not meet the national regulations, such as those that have not been certified by legal metrology inspection agencies, for stealing water, etc.

According to Article 264 of the Criminal Law of my country, the crime of theft refers to the act of secretly stealing a large amount of public and private property for the purpose of illegal possession or repeated theft, home burglary, theft with a murder weapon, and pickpocketing of public and private property. Therefore, "stealing water" has violated relevant regulations, and it is recommended that you do not violate relevant regulations for petty profits.

At the same time, in terms of water supply measurement, relevant water supply management departments also need to innovate and use more scientific smart water meters. For example, the R ratio of the ultrasonic water meter is higher and the initial flow rate is lower, which can achieve "drip metering" and avoid the phenomenon of "drip and leakage" non-measurement. Of course, the use of smart water meters still cannot prevent the phenomenon of "stealing water", but at least it can regulate some water users not to manipulate water meters.