Thousands of Aguas del Valle customers were upset by the massive cutoff of the drinking water supply in several sectors of La Serena and Coquimbo during the weekend, which in several cases exceeded 24 hours. And as explained by the sanitation company, the turbidity of the Elqui River due to the frontal system generated problems in the service.
Belén López, from Estancia El Sauce, tells Diario El Día that on Saturday, around 3:00 p.m. “without prior notice, notification or publication on social networks, the supply was cut off. This Monday is a school day and until now (around 4:00 p.m. on Sunday) there is no water, we have no water to shower, cook, or use the bathrooms. “We couldn’t save water, because we weren’t notified and there isn’t even a pond nearby.”
The neighbor adds that through municipal networks they learned about the installation of stationary ponds by the sanitation company in certain parts of the commune, but that they were two or three kilometers from their residence.
“What happens to people who do not have a vehicle, with reduced mobility or older adults, apparently the company is not interested and it is super worrying because the health company has a monopoly on the resource and we cannot opt for another company and on the other hand they deliver a very poor quality service,” commented Belén with obvious annoyance.
73 THOUSAND HOMES AFFECTED
Last Saturday, the Aguas del Valle company reported that due to the turbidity of the Elqui River, after the rains and lowering of the streams, the service was suspended in the conurbation, affecting 73 thousand customers.
Although the company’s backup systems allowed the supply to be sustained for more than 30 hours during the climate emergency, the runoff of sediment in the flow generated an imbalance in the system that led to its interruption. As an alternative plan, the company had tank trucks in the territory along with the installation of various stationary ponds.
In this regard, Andrés Nazer, manager of Aguas del Valle, explained that “the declines in the El Arrayán and Marquesa streams generated a very significant turbidity effect. This forced us to have to suspend the delivery of water through the intake for more than 30 hours and reinforce our production through the reserve of a dam of 47 thousand cubic meters that was prepared to produce water in case of an emergency. will generate this situation.”
TURBIDITY DID NOT WORRY CUTTING
Faced with the health emergency, the presidential delegate Galo Luna, together with representatives of the Superintendency of Sanitary Services, arrived this Sunday at the water collection plant of the Aguas del Valle company in the Las Rojas sector. The objective was to verify the measures adopted by the health company and the progress in restoring the service.
“We have been able to see in detail, tour the entire plant and there are no problems. Water is being produced optimally, of high quality. Therefore, we hope that during the afternoon hours (Sunday), services will gradually be restored for all customers in the conurbation,” the authority declared at the scene.
Meanwhile, Jorge Rivas, national superintendent, confirmed that an investigation will begin because, mainly on Saturday, “the explanations for why this emergency outage happened were not completely clear to us. “We believe that the turbidity event did not warrant a cut of that magnitude.”
Added to this process is the summons to the water company’s management to the Water Resources Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, chaired by the area’s parliamentarian, Víctor Pino. “We want to have a summary of what happened and to be able to have, from our oversight and representation role, the greatest clarity regarding this event that unfortunately affected the conurbation,” commented the legislator.
SUPPORT FROM THE MUNICIPALITIES
Given the worrying situation, the municipality of Coquimbo began various actions to support and deliver water, mainly in the Upper Part. Mayor Ali Manouchehri pointed out that the climate emergency activated the entire municipality to accompany the community during the rains with “many flooding points, roof problems, people who had problems with their sewers”, support that has continued during these subsequent days. to the intense rainfall.
Regarding the cutoff in the drinking water supply, as a result of the contamination of the Aguas del Valle plant, “we have been accompanying our neighbors with our cistern trucks, delivering a dose that is enough for families to use their bathrooms or prepare food in such complicated moments,” added the communal chief.
From the Municipality of La Serena, Ricardo Bruna, a professional from the Disaster Risk Management Directorate, points out that from the town hall, they began to mobilize, days before the meteorological event, knowing the Aguas del Valle contingency plan that indicated “being prepared to attend to all emergencies that may occur, both during and after the event.”
Because the health company deployed its procedure, it did not require additional support from the Serenense municipality.
SERVICE REPLACEMENT
Around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, the Aguas del Valle company announced the restoration of 100% of the service throughout the conurbation.
Along with regretting the inconveniences, the company, through its zonal deputy manager Juan Pablo Jacob, stated that “the system is already operating at full capacity, managing to replenish the sectors that we had kept cut off in La Serena and we are gradually filling the network with drinking water. in Coquimbo.”
Pond sampling
The emergency resulting from the interruption of the drinking water service also mobilized the Seremi de Salud, which carried out various sampling of the water from the stationary ponds installed by the company Aguas del Valle, to guarantee the good condition of the resource that was delivered to the company. community.
Seremi de Salud Paola Salas explained that these are emergency and exceptional situations that require everyone’s collaboration and being present, “especially in the sectors where they have water today, to work in solidarity, privileging the consumption of drinking water, the hygiene, hand washing, bathing children, for example, but today what we have to do as a community is be united to get out of this situation.”
