public utilities

Water shortage means late nights

Virgilio De León/LA PRENSA

inconvenient: Residents in La Chorrera neighborhoods struggle to collect water because of the area’s erratic treatment plant. 1094323

In the hope of finding drinking water in the taps of her residence, Katerine de Rodríguez gets up every day at 2 a.m.

For her there is no other option, otherwise she risks spending the whole day without a drop of water.

Rodríguez has encountered water problems since moving to the La Chorrera neighborhood of Jardines de El Mastranto a year ago. The situation, however, has grown steadily worse this month.

The problems, according to the Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Naciones (Idaan), affect El Mastranto residents as well as students and administrators at the Centro Regional Universitario de Panamá Oeste (Crupo).

Low water pressure forces them to wake up in the middle of the night, when demand is at its lowest levels, to fill up jugs and other containers to use for cooking and bathing during the rest of the day.

Idaan reported that, a week ago, the 3,000 students at Crupo were completely cut off.

The school purchased a water pump and a reserve tank to store water for the campus, but law supplies are not even enough to fill the tank.

Residents in the area have formed the Asociación Pro Rescate del Agua, which plans to start protesting the lack of water service to their homes.

Idaan Regional Director Yamileth Quintero said that the lack of water in La Chorrera is due to the age of the purifying plant and the population growth in the district. However, Idaan is working to solve the problem.

Quintero explained that the agency has to ration water in the area, and that if it provided service 24-hour a day to any single community, the system would soon run dry.

The entity has invested $9.9 million to expand the water treatment plant. That project should expand the plant's daily capacity to 11 million gallons. The expansion should be finished by this time next year.

Until then, residents will have to cope with the reality that water may only be available in the middle of the night, even if that isn't when anyone wants to drink it.