The Venezuelan Observatory on Public Services periodically surveys the citizens’ perception of the quality of public services in the cities of Caracas, Barquisimeto, Ciudad Bolívar, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Maracaibo, Barinas, San Cristóbal, Porlamar, San Fernando de Apure, Punto Fijo and Mérida. Three studies conducted by the organization during 2021 determined that the domestic water service is the worst-rated for quality, according to the respondents.

January 2021

The first study, carried out in January 2021, showed negative opinions about the quality of the water service accounting for 61.0% of all responses. In this case, three cities obtained more than 80% negative reviews of the quality of the service, namely Punto Fijo (83.6%), Porlamar (82.6%), and Maracaibo (82.4%).

Among the citizens who expressed unfavorable opinions about the quality of the water service in their homes, almost half (49.6%) stated that irregular supply was the main reason for their negative assessment.

However, the lack of supply despite having pipes also represented a significant percentage of responses (22.3%) among the group of users who gave a negative opinion about the water service.

Poor organoleptic properties of water, such as color, smell, and taste, were also another reason for a negative rating, as well as the presence of sediments in the water, mentioned in 17.2% of the responses.

June 2021

In the second study carried out by the Observatory in June 2021, the negative assessment of the quality of the water service rose slightly to 62.6%. However, three cities showed negative ratings between 70% and 93%: Maracaibo (92.4%), Porlamar (81.1%), and Barquisimeto (73.1%).

On this occasion, irregular supply and no supply at all exhibited values ​​similar to the previous study, with 48.3% and 20.0%, respectively. Poor organoleptic properties were mentioned in 20.4% of all responses.

September 2021

The third quarter of 2021 marked the worst rating of the quality of the water service, with 65.6% of negative assessments in September across the twelve cities surveyed.

According to the survey, Maracaibo remained the city with the greatest deficiencies in domestic water supply, with 90.8% of negative opinions, followed by Porlamar with 84.6% and Barcelona with 79.9%.

Finally, as in previous studies, irregular supply was the main reason why 55.9% of users gave a negative opinion of the service, while no supply at all was mentioned in 16.4% of the cases and poor organoleptic properties accounted for 19.3% of all responses.

Results of the Media Observatory for 2021

Through daily monitoring by the organization’s Observatory on Media and Networks, deficiencies in domestic water service were found to be the second most reported problem among all the evaluated public services (electricity, cooking gas, urban sanitation, and telecommunications) with 31.6% of mentions during 2021.

Also, poor domestic water service was the reason for the largest percentage of public protests, with 52.3% of all recorded protests.

Translated by Jose Rafael Medina