Water supply problems in Caleta Olivia 2014

Water supply problems in Caleta Olivia 2014
	Demonstration at Caleta Olivia Town Hall
Date	February 10, 2014 February 28, 2014
Location	Argentina
Participants	3,000 local people
Website	[article]

Water supply problems in Caleta Olivia occurred on 2014 (also called Thirst Days) and consisted on a series of protests against the lack of water produced by the rupture of the aqueduct Jorge Carstens. The Sarmiento,Comodoro Rivadavia and Rada Tilly areas located in Argentina. The water shortage began on the 10th of February with a rupture nearby Cerro Dragón (Dragon hill) this issue left the area of San Jorge Gulf without water.

Origin

In red: areas where there was no water; in blue, areas where there was water obtain from Cañadón Quintar and Meseta Espinoza.

Once the first breakdown at Cerro Dragón (Dragon hill) was repaired on 11th of February, the aqueduct got broken nearby Beautiful valley (Valle Hermoso). This issue created a longer lasting lack of water distribution that affected the area till 17th of February. The moment that the pipes were refilled with drinking water new punctures and cracks appear at the Caleta Olivia area, this issue was mainly produced because when pipes are not carrying water inside they tend to contract, once the pressure of water returns the expansion of the tubes made them burst. The aqueduct accumulated from 1999 more than 550 cracks and punctures in its 77 km section from Cerro Arenales (Arenales hill) to Caleta Olivia. This damage was mainly produced due to low quality materials used in the construction of the aqueduct. In Comodoro Rivadavia, the water supply is interrupted during weekends due to the population, industries and Argentine Army high water consumptions rates.

Dispute

The State Society of Public Services (“Servicios Públicos Sociedad del Estado” in Spanish) gave very few information about the incident, this provoked that 3,000 self-motivated people protested, claiming for the restoration of the precious water supply. The picketers carrying banners, blocked streets and avenues, the Town Hall and the National Road number 3 (RN 3) at the city’s northern access. The residents who took place in the protest were demanding action from the Mayor to solve the problem. Most of the population had to use seawater to clean up their homes. After the debate in between the Mayor and the people it was decided to keep the RN 3 blockade (main communication road for the east Patagonian region) till the governor of the Santa Cruz Province, Daniel Peralta reached Caleta Olivia to find a definitive solution to the conflict. Other problems were added to the lack of water: sewers system collapse, lack of public transport, closed banks, closed public offices, hospitals providing just minimum services and a few oil well production halted due to strikes.

Aqueduct

The Jorge Carstens aqueduct promised 100 years of proper operation, with a capacity of 115 million litres per day. Since 1999 the issues that troubled the normal functionality were:

Population increased (from 36,077 to 68,691).
Water volume flow increased (from 2,600,000 to 22,000,000).
Poor and defective pipe material.
Sabotage.
Poor system administration.
Delays on the construction of a parallel aqueduct to ease the problem.
Not accomplished promise to build a new aqueduct to bring water from Lake Buenos Aires to supply the northern region of Santa Cruz with water.

This aqueduct area is usually visible from the Comodoro Rivadavia – Caleta Olivia motorway, which connects around 300,000 inhabitants, so every time a puncture appears is easy to spot and find. In 2013 an agreement was signed to improve the regional aqueduct system Musters Lake – [Comodoro Rivadavia] – Rada Tilly – Caleta Olivia. The company responsible for this was the National Entity for Hydrological and sanitation works (in Spanish ENOHSA). Mr. Lucio Tamburo presented the plans for the parallel aqueduct, assuring that it was estimated to be finished in between August and September. The plan he suggested was:

Replacement of 46 kilometres of pipe (PRFV DN 600 and 700 mm).
Improvement of 5 pumping stations.
A new water-treatment plant.
An increase of 45% in drinking water production.
Dragon hill – Arenales hill section: A third parallel pipe with PRFV DN 500, 400 y 350 mm.
Sarmiento – Black hill section: New 25 km piping with a diameter in between 600 mm to 700 mm.

Emergency

On the 15th of February the council due to the demonstrations and the lack of water declared the city under the state of “hydric emergency”, after this Daniel Peralta and the local government declare the same state for the entire province. The long lasting emergency generate that the Argentine Army efforts increased in order to supply the city population with drinking water. The local people together with some local authorities request to the province government to increase the status to Disaster area.

Responses

The cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich said that “there were eight ruptures” in the aqueduct which “has issues and ruptures that are in process to be repaired, in the majority of districts”. The governor Daniel Peralta declared the city on hydric emergency on behalf of the province and he informed that he will request an authorization to the legislature to take a credit for $ 140,000,000 to buy equipment, to build an aqueduct for the water wells at Cañadón Seco (dry ravine) and for the construction of an [Reverse osmosis plant] that will generate 5,000,000 litres of water per day. Fernando Cotillo, the vice-governor criticised the townsfolk for their complains and said that the road blocks were doing no good for the problem; he also visited the aqueduct affected area. The mayor of Caleta Olivia, José Manuel Córdoba, denied rumours of resignation and he criticised the people who took part on the RN 3 road block. He also announced that 900,000 m³ of water were to be distributed using 17 trucks. The city councillor Juan Erwin Bolívar Acuña Kunz said that he will ask reports if the solutions will not be reaching the city. The MP Estela Bubola criticises the government, she said that it is obscene to expend more than $ 20,000,000 in a party at El Calafate while in Caleta Olivia there is no water. She requested an urgent session for the province council legislature in Caleta Olivia. She also criticized El Calafate Mayor. The province education council suspended the scholar activities for all February at Caleta Olivia, Cañadón Seco, Jaramillo y Fitz Roy. ENOHSA informed on the 20th of February that the parallel aqueduct construction was 20 % completed. The Council workers and employees union and the Private oil workers of Santa Cruz union requested to the authorities to “face the problem”. The secretary of the latest union, charged against the Oil drilling companies too. The council assembly for civil protection wrote a letter to the governor requesting a “his prompt intervention”. Omar Latini, the head of the Workers Party in Santa Cruz put a demand for “unfulfillment of public servant duties” to the Mayor, Governor and his cabinet. A group of local people elaborated a request demanding the presence of Governor Peralta and requested to the council an impeachment for the local Mayor, they also presented several complains.

Aid

Trucks from the Mechanic Brigade Command IX reaching the city.

Argentine National Gendarmerie deployed at the north access.

Due to the lack of water in the city, several companies, shops, unions and organizations sent bottled water and food to the city. A description of some of them below:

La Anónima supermarket: made a donation of 4,000 litres of bottled mineral water.
The oil company Instalex: distributed 5,500 litres using a company’s truck.
The 86 battalion “Aonikenk” of the Argentinean explorers of Don Bosco, collaborated with the General direction for Civil Protection for area XI, taking care of calls, reception of good, unloading and delivery of drinking water drums.
The Union front for a better living (Radical Civic Union): Began a campaign to help the city collecting drinking water from several province towns.
Several stores collaborated in the distribution of food to the people that were blocking the roads.
Several cities from the [San Jorge Gulf] Basin collaborated with tanker trucks to be distributed in Caleta Olivia:

2 tanker trucks form Comodoro Rivadavia. 2 tanker trucks form Perito Moreno. 2 tanker trucks from Pico Truncado. 1 tanker truck from Río Gallegos.

YPF donated 6,000 liters of drinking water consisting of 8 liters drums, were also added several tanker trucks from different services companies from Comodoro Rivadavia, Pico Truncado and Las Heras.
The teacher’s union (in Spanish ADOSAC) donated bottled water at their filial in Caleta Olivia.
New Generation FM, from Pico Truncado donated 92,000 liters of drinking water for the Pedro Tardivo Hospital.
Radical Civic Union councilors from Los Antiguos, Pico Truncado and Las Heras made donations of water and they also present demand about the water problem.
The Center of the students from Santa Cruz in La Plata participated in a collection of drinking water that was sent to the affected city.

Argentine Army:

The regiment of Mechanized infantry 8 collaborated with 4,000 liters of drinking water and trucks to assist in the distribution.
Use of a water purification plant located at Novosel fields to supply the Zona de Chacras area and settlements.
Use of a Reverse osmosis plant (for desalination) brought from Bahía Blanca, installed on the 23rd of February in the area of Caleta Paula port, 14 marines and personnel from the ministry were taking care of the coordination for the resources deployment.
The Mechanic Brigade Command sent 7 troops with 3 Water purification (one as reserve) with a production capacity of 10,000 liters of drinking water per hour. These purification stations were placed at La Laurita area located at 25 kilometers from the city; there all the processes of extraction, purification and distribution were performed.
Till the 22nd of February 29 trucks were affected on the water distribution.

References

In English:

In Spanish:

External links