metro

Sewage woes trouble street

la prensa

careful steps: Calle Uruguay’s dazzling nightlife is being sabotaged by sewage problems and chronic flooding.1136487

Calle Uruguay may be notorious for its raucous nightlife and occasional predawn shootouts, but it’s what’s going on underneath the street that has local business owners and residents on tenterhooks.

At 6 p.m. on Nov. 5, kitchen staff at the popular Italian eatery Peperoncini found themselves swamped. Not with dinner orders, as was usually the case at that hour, but literally wading in several inches of water. They soon discovered that an underground pipeline had collapsed.

“We had shut off all the faucets but the water level kept rising,” said restaurant manager Mercedes López. And though the floodwaters took everyone by surprise, it wasn’t the first time the restaurant had experienced a burst water main.

In fact, to the dismay of many of Calle Uruguay’s well-heeled revelers, it is one of the areas of the city plagued by frequent sewage blockages, where foul odors often compete with guests’ expensive fragrances and the aroma of fine cuisine. Worst of all, however, are the brackish puddles that make nightclub goers hesitate before stepping out in their best.

“Business owners in the area have talked a lot about how uncomfortable it is for pedestrians on the street, who hope that cars don’t splash them when passing or as they’re getting out of the car,” said López.

We’ve seen this situation for years, confirmed José Carias, director of IDAAN, the country’s water and sewer agency, who blamed the chronic clogs in the drains on the local restaurant’s irresponsible dumping of grease. Grease traps are required by the Ministry of Health, but Carias indicated that that agency often neglects to ensure that the trap is proportionate in size to a restaurant’s kitchen.

In spite of regulations, many restaurants operate without the traps, forcing IDAAN to compensate by undertaking periodic cleaning measures. The cost of equipment used and duration of those cleaning activities is often exorbitant at around $3,000 per day for a job that must be done every two weeks to a month’s time.

“Sometimes we were there more than six hours in one area,” said Carias, who explained that as IDAAN does not have the authority to fine establishments that violate health requirements, the only option available is to consider charging for the cleanings.

“That’s the only way they will understand, when it starts to cost them,” he added.

IDAAN recommends that those restaurants with traps clean them out once a month, but some of the local businesses claim they do it three times per week.

Verísimo Martínez, who heads the Department of Environmental Health for the Ministry of Health in the metropolitan area, denied that any of the restaurants on Calle Uruguay were operating without grease traps, and said most have either been cited for cleaning violations or received lectures. Additionally, the agency reviews the traps every three months, he added.

But according to the department head, grease isn’t the only material blocking the drains.

“There are all kinds of debris in there,” said Martínez, who attributed much of the area’s sewage problems to the neighborhood’s rapid growth in recent years.

“The amount of water to these pipelines already exceeds the capacity,” he said, adding that the capital’s water and sewage system is between 50 and 60 years old. When you start to add new buildings to an old system, the pipes overloaded and collapse, he commented.

For that reason, the ministry no longer permits new buildings to be connected to the sewage system, but must include their own separate water treatment plant. The cost of those plants is carried by the builders. “They have complained, but something must be done,” said the agency representative.