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As cities grow, public services don’t keep up

LA PRENSA

OFF THE GRID:The infrastructure of cities in the interior has not kept up with new construction.1002367

As Panama City’s building boom spreads to the interior, aging and obsolete infrastructure is being strained to near breaking point. In some areas, such as Santiago and Penenomé, water and trash collection services have already collapsed, forcing urban planners to reassess development plans on the fly.

David, the capital city of Chiriquí, seems to be representative of the crisis, where city officials have not updated its Master Development Plan in 20 years, and do not have the funds to do so now. As a result, all construction in David, above and below ground, has been done in a piecemeal fashion, with little attention to how underground water and gas mains and septic systems fit together.

So when the city began running short on drinking water, the source of the problem wasn´t immediately known.

Rogelio Baruco, the former director of the Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Nacionales (Idaan), points to insufficient capacity in David´s current water purification system, which was last expanded by a mere 6 million gallons in 2001. Since then, David´s population has increased, leaving city managers with no other option but to drastically ration water resources.

Santiago, on the border of the Veraguas and Coclé provinces, has similar water woes. In many upland areas of the city, water is simply not reaching residents because the municipal water treatment plant can’t produce enough to meet growing demand.

Marcelo Tristán, administrator of Idaan´s Veraguas branch, announced a $400,000 plan to expand the treatment plant. Such a plan has the potential to ease the water shortage somewhat, but a crisis in sewage looms on Santiago´s horizon, as an overhaul of the current system is 12 years overdue. In the meantime, all new housing developments must include their own septic tanks, which creates additional problems with sidewalks and gutters when septic tanks are crammed underneath small lots.

Arnold Santamaria, a Santiago city engineer, recommends that access to sewage facilities, clean water and all other public services be assessed before any future building projects are approved.

According to Víctor Jordán of the Frente Anticorrupción in Veraguas, many developers have deceived homebuyers into believing they will have access to public facilities when in fact they are not on the grid.

As much as 60 percent of the newer developments in the city have reported problems, and in many cases, says Jordán, residents have little recourse.

In the Penenomé area, city officials have been vacillating over where to open a new landfill. Meanwhile, the construction of new houses and commercial buildings continues without the infrastructure problems being addressed. In short order, this city is expected to encounter the same problems as other places.