Puerto Rico: legislators request investigation of AAA for alleged overbilling

Senator Cirilo Tirado Rivera and congressman Luis Vega Ramos are requesting that an investigation be conducted due to an alleged over-billing scheme involving Puerto Rico’s aqueducts and sewerage authority AAA.

The scheme also includes local firm CH Caribe Engineers, which provides services to AAA and is legally represented by José Toucet, son of AAA vice president Eufemio Toucet.

“Several invoices from May [2009] onward show evidence of over-billing. Some of them charge for sewerage services in places where they are not available, while in other cases the water meters are changed and the rate charged is up to eight times more than the real consumption levels,” the legislators said. In cases when AAA has changed the meter, it can take up to four months to register the replacement, so the authority charges for that period based on estimates.

Additionally, clients must pay again for those four months when AAA registers the new meters into their systems, they added.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 08 Jul 2009

Peru: cleanup of Lake Titicaca to start in November 2009

In November or December [2009], the Peruvian side of lake Titicaca will start to use microorganisms or “good” bacteria to decontaminate the lake, under a proposal designed by the local Universidad Nacional del Altiplano (UNA).

The dean of UNA’s agrarian science faculty, Luis Alfredo Palao Iturregui, said the university is carrying out a series of studies that will finish in August [2009], following which the process can begin. The project would use Japanese effective microorganisms (EM) technology, which consists of placing good bacteria in a body of water to gradually eliminate the toxic microorganisms.

The technology has already been successfully used in other countries such as Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Kenya, China and Japan, as well as in coastal projects in Peru.

Colombia, for example, has 19 organic waste treatment plants in the departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Huila, Antioquia, Caldas, Santander and Meta, all of which use the EM technology.

Lake Titicaca is contaminated by sewage and waste from treatment plants discharged directly into its waters, as well as tailings from mining operations which flow from the Suches and Ramis rivers into the lake.
The EM proposal would start treatment of the sewage before it reaches the lake, to free the wastewater from toxic components.

“The first part of the cleanup project will be carried out as a pilot project in the artificial lagoon, opposite the city’s pier, in November or December. Later, the microorganisms will be released into the stabilization pond where the wastewater flows into the lake,” Palao Iturregui said.

Afterwards, the microorganisms will be released in other parts of the lake.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 11 Jun 2009

Bolivia: huge glacier disappears

Scientists in Bolivia say that one of the country’s most famous glaciers has almost disappeared as a result of climate change. The Chacaltaya glacier, 5,300m up in the Andes, used to be the world’s highest ski run. But it has been reduced to just a few small pieces of ice.

Many Bolivians on the highland plains, and in two cities, depend on the melting of the glaciers for their water supply during the dry season.

The team of Bolivian scientists started measuring the Chacaltaya glacier in the 1990s. Not long ago they were predicting that it would survive until 2015. But now it seems, the glacier has melted at a much faster rate than they expected.

[...] Edson Ramirez, a scientist who has studied the region for years, says the significance of the melting glaciers goes way beyond tourism. As well as those living on the highland plains, two of Bolivia’s main cities, La Paz and El Alto, rely on the Andean glaciers for an important part of their drinking water.

The World Bank warned earlier this year that many of the Andes’ tropical glaciers will disappear within 20 years. This, the bank said, would both threaten the water supplies of nearly 80 million people living in the region, and jeopardise the future generation of hydropower. Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru depend on that power for about half their electricity.

Source: James Painter, BBC, 12 May 2009

Chile: town withers in free market for water

During the past four decades here in Quillagua, a town in the record books as the driest place on earth, residents have sometimes seen glimpses of raindrops above the foothills in the distance. They never reach the ground, evaporating like a mirage while still in the air.

What the town did have was a river, feeding an oasis in the Atacama desert. But mining companies have polluted and bought up so much of the water, residents say, that for months each year the river is little more than a trickle — and an unusable one at that.

Quillagua is among many small towns that are being swallowed up in the country’s intensifying water wars. Nowhere is the system for buying and selling water more permissive than here in Chile, experts say, where water rights are private property, not a public resource, and can be traded like commodities with little government oversight or safeguards for the environment.

Private ownership is so concentrated in some areas that a single electricity company from Spain, Endesa, has bought up 80 percent of the water rights in a huge region in the south, causing an uproar. In the north, agricultural producers are competing with mining companies to siphon off rivers and tap scarce water supplies, leaving towns like this one bone dry and withering.

Read more: Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times, 15 Mar 2009

Mexico, Mexico City: drainage tunnel will help control sinkholes, says researcher

Construction of the 13bn-peso (US$976mn) Túnel Emisor Oriente drainage tunnel in Mexico City will help alleviate the sinkhole problems that have affected the capital for over 100 years, researcher with autonomous university UNAM’s geological sciences center, Marcos Ortega [said].

“Some areas of Mexico City are sinking 30-40cm/y due to the overuse of groundwater resources. This causes the sediments upon which the city is built to compact and lose volume,” Ortega said.

Sinkholes pose complex problems and the first step required to permanently resolve them is to impose more control over water extraction and water use levels, according to Ortega.

To make things worse, excessive rainfall in the rainy season causes the ground to swell, increasing the instability of the terrain, he added.

“Mexico City is located on a naturally enclosed basin, which needs to be drained in the rainy season. Projects such as the drainage tunnel will be very helpful to avoid flood-related problems such as sinkholes,” Ortega said.

At the same time, it is vital to raise awareness in the population and among authorities about the proper use of water to reduce waste, he said, adding: “A lot of water is lost through cracks in the distribution grids, creating a vicious cycle.”

In addition, over 70m3/s of wastewater is dumped directly into the city’s drainage system, instead of being treated and reused.

“Reusing and treating wastewater is key to preventing more sinkholes from appearing in Mexico City,” Ortega said.

Source: Renzo Dasso, BNamericas [subscription site], 05 Jun 2009

Mexico: Senate committee to hold public hearings on potable water, sanitation bill

The Mexican senate’s water resources committee will hold a nationwide round of public hearings to gather proposals to enhance the national potable water and sanitation bill, aimed at solving water access and supply problems. [Some] 12mn-15mn people do not have access to potable water and nearly 25mn do not have access to sanitation services.

Water operators, NGOs, municipal presidential associations, academics, local and federal legislators and federal, state and municipal authorities are expected to attend the hearings. Committee president Silvano Aureoles said that 40-50% of water extracted nationwide is lost due to lack of technical and administrative efficiency.

This represents nearly half of the income that national water authority Conagua obtains from potable water supply rights.

To make matters worse, roughly half of the country’s potable water and sewerage networks need to be replaced because they are too old and have deteriorated.

The hearings are taking place between June and September 2009.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 08 Jun 2009

Brazil, Honduras: Cagece expects to schedule follow-up meeting with Sanaa

Brazil’s Ceará state water utility Cagece [Companhia de Agua e Esgoto do Ceará] hopes to schedule a follow-up meeting with Honduran national water utility Sanaa soon to continue discussions related to a technical cooperation agreement, Cagece technical cooperation manager and advisor Mozart Brandão [said].

Cagece met with engineers from Sanaa and Honduran government officials on June 4 and 5. Representatives of the World Bank [...] were also present at the meeting. Cagece was chosen for the [World Bank] visit because of its good performance in certain initiatives, the utility said in a release. The utility has the best figures in the country with respect to water loss reduction.

[...] Cagece’s operational management model was discussed at the meeting as Sanaa officials and Honduran capital Tegucigalpa authorities are especially interested in the control of real and apparent losses, as well as the outsourcing of services.

The Honduran officials are also interested in learning how to build relations with regulatory entities that authorize public services, as well as strategies to provide services to low-income populations.

The Central American delegation will also visit São Paulo state.

Source: Daniel Bland, BNamericas [subscription site], 09 Jun 2009

Chile: legislators submit bill to modify water law

Chilean legislators have submitted a bill proposing changes to the country’s general sanitation service law, which would guarantee a minimum supply, the lower house reported in a release.

Under current law, utilities can cut service provision to clients who fail to pay their water bills, but the legislators believe that, due to sanitation and collective rights, firms should provide a minimum supply.
The bill establishes that water utilities should give a 15-day warning before cutting off services for failure to pay bills. Utilities should also continue to provide a minimum amount of water to guarantee hygiene, health and drinking water to residents.

To support their request, legislators used information from the World Health Organization that claims that improving water supply reduces stomach illnesses by 6-21%; and a declaration made by the UN’s human rights promotion and protection committee that includes access to potable water and sanitation as one of the main principles of equality, dignity and social justice.

The bill will be analyzed by the congressional public works committee.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 25 Jun 2009

El Salvador: Country needs to invest US$1.27bn/y to raise water, sanitation coverage, says national water authority

El Salvador needs to invest some US$1.27bn/y to bring potable water and sanitation coverage to optimum levels by 2029, national aqueduct and sewerage authority Anda’s [Administración Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados] planning director Víctor Manuel Corpeño [said].

In May, Anda unveiled its 2009-29 strategic plan. As well as setting the guidelines for modernizing the entity, the plan aims to raise water and sanitation coverage to 100% by 2029.

[Although national and international agencies] agree that the country needs to invest US$60mn-70mn/y in potable water services to meet its strategic goals, Corpeño said [that] financing needs are much greater in the sanitation sector, as coverage is extremely low, [adding] that an estimated US$1.2bn/y is needed to meet the goals.

“This just includes systems administered by Anda but other operators need to be included also,” he said.
“We basically expect an injection of funds from the government. Financial support during previous administrations was lacking and totally insufficient to meet the country’s needs,” he added.

“We will also approach international cooperation agencies in hopes of obtaining grants. The entity is not currently in a position to take out loans, due to weak finances,” Corpeño said.

Anda is the country’s most relevant water and sewerage operator, with a strong presence in urban areas.

Source: Renzo Dasso, BNamericas [subscription site], 30 jun 2009

Bolivia, Chile: Govts ready to sign initial agreement on Silala waters

Chile and Bolivia are ready to sign an initial bilateral agreement regarding the Silala waters but the document has not yet been made public. [...] After years of discussions, officials from the two countries finally finished drawing up the document, which is the first step in the implementation of a legal framework.

[...] Chile and Bolivia agreed on two principal points: that the waters are shared by both countries and that both countries have the right to benefit from the use of them. The ministries made sure they drew up a document that allows for the creation of a framework in accordance with the legislations in both countries, and one that enables users to pay for the waters if necessary.

Bolivia will therefore be able to grant permits, if necessary, to use some of these waters, he added.
The final version of the document was reviewed at a meeting held in La Paz on June 29 and 30 [2009], during which officials discussed a total of 13 bilateral issues, including the Silala waters.

For decades, both countries have argued over Chile’s right to use water from Silala. At the heart of the debate is an issue of international law. Chilean authorities claimed Silala is an international river due to the route it follows and, as such, its use is regulated by international law. Bolivia, on the other hand, claimed the waters originate from 94 springs on its territory, which is not governed by international law.

The real value of these waters has increased tremendously over the last few years, as they have become vital for mining companies operating in the Chilean north, while Bolivian officials argue this leaves their own citizens and productive activities without sufficient water.

Bolivian authorities say that if the water was not artificially channeled, it would naturally flow towards Potosí department, which does not have enough water for human consumption or industrial activities.

Source: Eva Medalla, BNamericas [subscription site], 01 Jul 2009