FINES were handed out to  39 truck drivers for drawing water from rivers without permission during carnival and six of them were ordered to deliver the water to drinking troughs for animals instead of the two legged ones waiting to frolic under water jets at carnival sites.

Environment Ministry official Félix Wing  said fines ranged up to $2,000..

The largest number of cases occurred in the Azuero peninsula, he said.

Prior to Carnival , the Ministry of the Environment published the list of areas where trucks could remove water. The drivers who were ticketed were caught taking water from areas outside that list.