The diagnosis for the patient of just one year and five months was hemolytic uremic syndrome. Doctors warned their parents that the disease is usually contracted by eating undercooked meat that carries bacteria. But Tiziana’s mother is not only a nurse and she knows the risks, but she also does not usually give meat to the girl.
At the same time, some 68 families from the Payla Menuco and Newen Antvg areas in Chapelco, 19 kilometers from San Martín de los Andes, registered vomiting, diarrhea and gastroenteritis. The study of the water was conclusive and showed the presence of the Escherichia Coli bacteria.
Virginia Colipan, Kona (territorial authority) of the Curruinca community in the Payla Menuco area where 200 families live, said that this situation has been going on for 30 years. “It has become more pronounced in recent times with a greater number of tourists in the ski resort. At first, the center discharged sewage into the streams. There was no treatment plant. “Finally, a sewage treatment plant was built and in 2000 a water network was constructed for the affected families,” the woman said.
The service is offered by the San Martín de los Andes Drinking Water Cooperative, but in the last ten years multiple complaints have arisen due to the turbidity of the water. Presentations were made at the Ombudsman’s Office for Human Rights and the Environment, at the Municipality of San Martín de los Andes and at the cooperative itself. Since then, numerous studies have been carried out, but Residents say they were never informed of the results of the water quality. Until this summer.
«We had never had the possibility to verify it until in the summer, in addition to the case of Tiziana, my niece, more than 60 families presented symptoms of gastroenteritis, vomiting and diarrhea. An epidemiological team detected that The water had the bacteria Escherichia Coli. This was confirmed not only at my sister’s house but at school 161 in Payla Menuco where more than 100 children attend.“Colipan said.
After a tour of the Chapelco hill, an open-air garbage dump was detected two meters from the water source. “It is paradoxical when the center has been given awards for supposedly caring for the environment,” said Colipan, referring to the fact that Chapelco was recognized as the first and only ski center in the country to generate renewable energy.
“The report that the cooperative prepared,” the woman continued, ” Six breaks and losses of sewage discharges were detected. This has already been presented in court, through the Environmental Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, which began to act ex officio.
Since last Wednesday, he noted that they have been without water since the cooperative cut off the service “due to turbidity.”
Colipan considered that the causes of the problem are multiple: the increase in population, the lack of maintenance in the water purification works and “the absence of investments by the ski center to keep the sewers in good condition.” He adds the lack of supervision by the control agencies.
«The latest water tests were perfect, but we have been distrusting those results. Just before the water was cut off these days, another family appeared with diarrhea. We asked for an external audit to be carried out with technicians, scientists and biologists,» he said, adding: «We live in fear of what the water might hold. There is a lot of indignation and anger because this has been perceived and nothing has been done. My niece was saved by a miracle.«.
The intervention of the Ombudsman from town
Gonzalo Salaberry, deputy defender of the Ombudsman’s Office and Environment of San Martín de los Andes, referred to Tiziana’s case: “Only ten days after the diagnosis, the Health Zone Delegation was able to go to the house to trace where the infection came from. bacterium. The water had no chlorine and recorded Escherichia Coli. We all thought it was too much of a coincidence, but The Health Zone concludes that it is not categorical that the disease was due to that. The truth is that we still have many doubts«.
He assured that an inter-institutional table made up of authorities from the Health Zone, the hospital, the Ombudsman’s Office, the Secretariat of Public Works, councilors and control agencies of the Municipality and the Province have been working on the problem for two years. «In the immediate future, the objective is for people to have safe and drinkable water; In the medium term, improve the drinking water network,” he indicated.
The roundtable focused on the possible causes of the contamination. For this reason, an inspection was coordinated at the effluent treatment plant at the base of the Chapelco hill and the sewage system of the complex. The results were not favourable. “It must be taken into account that all the communities are downstream from Chapelco. The truth is that Chapelco had the chamber and part of the network broken and they were lost directly into the environment. There were raw sewage discharges on the Chapelco runways. We verified this during an inspection in the summer. Chapelco took matters into his own hands and hired a company to make the necessary repairs. “Today that is supposed to be healed,” he explained.
He also mentioned that the treatment plant at the Chapelco base, operated by the water cooperative, “has design and operation complications.” “There are improvement works that could be done: for example, today it is operated by one worker two or three days a week, when he should be there all week, even more so in season,” he said, and highlighted that These improvement works have already been proposed to the Provincial Water and Sanitation Authority (Epas) for financing..
He said that the wastewater treatment plant was built by the province of Neuquén to provide service only to the Chapelco ski resort. “Under an agreement, the province charges Chapelco for maintenance, but that maintenance is insufficient,” he said.
In turn, he mentioned that the Cooperative charges the Province for the service of collection, purification and distribution of drinking water although, “apparently, hasn’t paid for two years. There is a debt and serious financial complications. They cannot take charge of maintenance on the Chapelco network without payment from the province.
