In Punto Fijo, Barquisimeto and Maracaibo there are areas where tap water has not been restored. In addition, they are subjected to strong electrical rationing after the emergency.
Caracas. The Venezuelan Public Services Observatory (OVSP) presented on Tuesday a balance of the survey conducted in 10 cities of the country to measure the effects of the blackouts that occurred during the month of March. Among the results highlighted, there are areas such as Punto Fijo, Maracaibo and Barquisimeto where tap water is not available. Service has not yet been fully restored. Virtually, 26% of the population does not have tap water through plumbing.
After the blackouts that affected 18 out of the 23 states, 6403 surveys were applied in 10 of these, between April and the beginning of May. The initial proposal was to average the days that the Venezuelans spent without electricity and, therefore, without the tap water service.
Juan Cubas, president of the OVSP, explained that the tap water service is related to the electric power service.
“30% of those consulted do not attribute responsibility to anything or anyone in particular,” he said.
This situation differs from the protests that occurred in the slums, specifically on March 30, when angry people directly blamed Nicolás Maduro for the collapse of the services and demanded he send tap water.
Another fact that Cubas reported is that 52% of respondents considered that the main reason for the blackouts was the lack of maintenance of the electrical industry.
In the surveys, the discomfort of the population and the consequences of these events, such as the damage to food and household appliances, were also collected.
The consultations were held in Barcelona, Barquisimeto, Caracas, Ciudad Bolívar, Maracaibo, Mérida, San Cristóbal, Porlamar, Punto Fijo and Valencia, where 10.7 million Venezuelans live, according to the projections of the National Institute of Statistics for 2015.
Without electricity, water services do not reach
Prodavinci, the web portal, did an analysis of the OVSP data and determined that, during the massive blackouts, five million people were left at least three consecutive days without electricity; and almost half a million people were without service for more than seven days.
In Mérida and Maracaibo, the population faced the longest interruptions. Mérida spent an average of 4.6 days without electricity. However, in Maracaibo almost a quarter of the inhabitants had no electricity before the 7th day.
In Porlamar, the electric service was restored in the first 24 hours for 92.6% of the people. In Barcelona, 81.1% of citizens were without electricity for two days or less. The users in Caracas had to wait, on average, two and a half days for the electricity to return.
But, in addition, the portal identified that 241 educational centers are rationed and 158 lose the equivalent of one week of classes per month.
Out of the 196 health centers that appear in the plan, 42 spend the equivalent of more than three days without electricity per month and in the middle of that contingency, the water does not arrive. The rationing is unequal: while Cojedes has most of its population in rationed parishes; Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro, Capital District and Vargas do not have official rationing.
The engineer Norberto Bausson, who presented the results related to the tap water service, added an interesting fact, the population distrusts its institutions and he highlighted that 50% of the respondents said that a new blackout will probably occur.
“What worries us is that neither the government nor the population are prepared for events of this magnitude. In fact, in March, a significant number of the population did not receive government aid and that is why we saw those images of people searching for water in the Guaire river”, said Bausson.
Cubas, in the end, pointed out that 61% of the inhabitants value public services negatively, something that should mobilize the state institutions, because – in the case of water – the methods for access are through tank trucks, loading bottles or natural sources: 34.3% of the population is subjected to these unconventional means, which impacts on their well-being and quality of life.
The same survey evaluated services such as garbage collection, distribution of domestic gas and telephony, results that are still in process.
From Cronica Uno
