The community ‘splits’ the first year’s operation and some officials maintain that some sectors have improved
The multinational Aqualia, one of the nine most prestigious companies in the world, in the operation and maintenance of water and sewage services and which benefited from a contract resulting from a public tender by the mayor of Riohacha, On June 1, he completed his first year of being in charge of these services in the capital of La Guajira and despite the fact that the goals he set for that term were not very demanding, one has not been fully met, nor the other.
On June 6, 2023, the operation began, which must extend for a period of 30 years, the longest period in which operations have been delivered to the companies contracted in La Guajira at all times. During those days, the company, through its authorized spokesperson at the Riohacha Unit, the engineer Manuel Olivella, expressed that in the first year of activities, changes regarding coverage should be observed. The company had begun with the commitment to maintain and operate the aqueduct and sewage systems for the Camarones and Matitas townships.
However, it is necessary to indicate that a good part of the causes that cause the provision of these services to be very poor in these two towns are exogenous, but there is no concern on the part of either of the two parties that share administrative and legal responsibility.
Then, the company also made a commitment so that in the first year of operations they could efficiently provide the aqueduct service in other towns other than the two mentioned. The reality today is that there is no good water or sewage service, despite the million-dollar investments that the local departmental and national governments have made.
Aqualia enters into operation in Riohacha
“On June 1, the company begins the contract for the management, financing, operation, rehabilitation, construction, design, expansion, replacement and maintenance of the infrastructure of domestic public aqueduct and sanitary sewage services in the district of Riohacha. This is the company’s largest operation in Colombia: it will serve a population of nearly 310,000 inhabitants for 30 years.
With the entry into operation in the capital of Guajira, Aqualia strengthens its presence in Colombia, where it already reaches 30 municipalities served in 8 departments of the country, and provides services to nearly 1,200,000 inhabitants”, reads a company website.However, today, when the first year of activity has passed, this company that, due to the records it has, the awards received from the most demanding institutions that monitor the provision of these services had raised great expectations, is unable to gain support from the community. .
Leaders believe that service has deteriorated
A quick overview of Riohacha’s leadership shows frustration in the budgets that were made when contracting with an international company that could bring the capital a humanized aqueduct service and a coverage and permanence of the service that in many areas has decreased.
“It generated a setback in the service”
Argemiro Avilaone of the leaders of the capital Guajira, resident in Comuna Siete, says that in his neighborhood The Divine ChildWhat is observed is that the service has deteriorated. “Our water arrived on Thursday nights, it remained on Friday and we had water until Saturday, but now it arrives on Thursday and leaves on the same day, the costs on the bill are now higher and are not related to the amount of water. liquid delivered”.
This social leader maintains that in addition to these problems, the company lacks training for its staff, because they are not prepared to serve the user community and the answers they provide in their offices are not in line with what is needed.
Juan Arizaone of the leaders of the second stage of the neighborhood 31 October, dares to say that the service has fallen by at least 30% since the Aqualia company took over. “I don’t know why this is happening, the intake at the intake is sufficient and in the city we must remember that there is a backup aqueduct system that has three deep wells with great production, when they want the water to arrive they increase the pressure in the pipe and that must be made permanent“Ariza maintains.
In Villa Fátima it doesn’t improve either
This is one of the most socially depressed sectors and where essential public services have been elusive for a long time. The community leader Yeisa Kaola Amaya Larrada, categorically indicates that in his sector there is not a single action by which the work of the first year of the Aqualia company can be rescued. “We are still in the same crisis with a poor aqueduct service where anyone who wants permanent water must buy it at very high costs and the sewage system is a real shame.”.
The company Aqualia, the mayor’s office of Riohacha and the community are waiting for a resolution to demand the annulment of the contract or the public tender that was made to deliver the operation of the aqueduct and sewage services by the end of 30 years. The process is handled by the Generation of the Nation Attorney General’s Office.
The secretary says that progress is being made
Keider Freyle Sarmiento, former Secretary of Works of Riohacha who recently left the administration, is a different voice, as he maintains that, for a single year, progress was made in the provision of the service. “Stoppages and blockades are no longer continuous in Shrimp, There is no doubt that the service has improved and also in the township of Matitas, But you have to understand that barely a year has passed and much more time is required to solve so many problems in this aqueduct system.”.
The new Secretary of Public Works of Riohacha Jaime Brugés Morenomaintains that many sectors of the aqueduct have improved, but voices of dissatisfaction continue to be heard from users who maintain that they are not improving and that on the contrary they have declined.
“We see that there is an intention to improve, but the truth is we expect much more from the company Aqualia, we know that putting pressure on the service at this time would generate chaos due to the obsolescence of many sections of pipe and that is what they are working on.”. He also says that they are intervening in several sewage sectors that no longer provide any more and that you have to be a little patient to obtain good results because they have a project to detach pipes in the conduction line, which will increase the water in Riohacha by more than 100 liters per second.
