BLOG

WATER POLITICS

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, an interesting article on the how scarce rainfall and failing infrastructure have left Venezuela’s reservoirs dry, factories idle, electricity in short supply and some people desperate enough for water to steal it:

Desperate for water, construction worker Pedro Pirela and his neighbors recently laid a nighttime ambush. Alerted by the roar of a water truck that supplies nearby hotels, they blocked the street and forced the driver to stop, then siphoned off his precious cargo.

Mr. Pirela and his co-conspirators had no choice, they said. A nationwide water shortage is crippling Venezuela, leaving faucets dry and contributing to rolling blackouts. Here on Margarita Island, a tourist destination that is also home to 500,000 permanent residents, the government said it could only supply water once every 21 days after a reservoir on the mainland dried up.

Some people are protesting. Others are stealing water from swimming pools, public buildings, and even tanker trucks.

“Water is gold now,” said Mr. Pirela, who said he had also ambushed another water truck.

People collect drinking water from Àvila mountain near Caracas last month. The government has rationed electricity and water supplies for months as Venezuela endures a prolonged drought that has slashed output at hydroelectric dams.

In a country long plagued by food and medicine shortages, the newer hardships are water scarcity and increasingly critical power blackouts—a byproduct of the lack of water in a country dependent on hydroelectric dams.

As reservoirs evaporate, many across Venezuela go without water service for weeks on end. Power outages are forcing factories to send workers home early, pushing down production. Darkened neighborhoods provide fertile ground for muggers.

It may get a lot worse. Power experts say the country’s largest hydroelectric dam is so short of water that electricity may be shut off for as much as eight hours a day in a matter of days.

“We are in a critical situation,” Electricity Minister Luis Motta told reporters recently.

President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government, which controls the electricity and water sectors, blames the problems on Mother Nature and sabotage by political opponents.

 

An El Niño-induced drought has led to critically low water levels in reservoirs and at El Guri, a massive hydroelectric dam in eastern Venezuela that provides 65% of the country’s electricity supply. The water behind the dam on Friday was just over 2 feet above the level at which technicians say it becomes unsafe to operate the power turbine, and 13 feet above the level at which electricity generation would have to be shut down, according to figures from the state-owned power company, Corpoelec.

The Maduro government is responding with rationing and TV spots urging Venezuelans to conserve. Most public schools now close early, hotels in Caracas have been ordered to cut power use, and state workers were given extended holidays to save water and electricity.

Critics say the government hasn’t provided any evidence of sabotage and point out that neighboring countries no less dependent on dams are weathering El Niño and avoiding blackouts. Caracas energy consultant Miguel Lara says the real problems are corruption and a lack of government investment and maintenance.

Opposition lawmaker Jony Rahal said that in 2009, then-President Hugo Chávez signed a $180-million deal with Iran to build a new water pipe from the mainland to Margarita Island. Not a single meter of pipe has been laid despite the disbursement of funds, Mr. Rahal said. On the nearby island of Coche, abandoned water pipes rusting in the sand are the only sign of the supply project announced by the Maduro government two years ago. Calls to government officials to discuss the Iran deal weren’t returned.

When water does emerge from faucets, many Venezuelans say, it is often tainted with mud and sand. In the Caracas slum of El Valle, housekeeper Angela Mera says she keeps the tap running for an hour before it clears up.

“We wait so long for the water, and then this dirt comes out,” she said.

The president of the state-run water utility HidroVen and Siboney Tineo, the vice minister for water in Mr. Maduro’s government, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Some in government, though, were hoping for help from above.

“God is on our side!” Mr. Motta, the electricity minister, wrote Thursday on his official Twitter account, where he was pictured pointing to storm clouds.

Venezuela’s water grid is faltering despite $10 billion of investment in the past decade, according to a declaration Ms. Tineo made to congress in February. In the power sector, the government spent about $60 billion on infrastructure from 2008 to 2014, according toJuan Pablo Olalquiaga, president of the Venezuelan Confederation of Industries. That includes thermoelectric plants and the $9-billion Tocoma hydropower plant.

But that dam has yet to come on line. A former high-ranking official who worked on electric projects said the government routinely overpaid for equipment and for poor-quality thermoelectric plants that are unable to offset the decrease in hydroelectric power.

Spokesmen for Corpoelec and the electricity and information ministries declined to comment on new plant investment.

Much of the country is grappling with sporadic power cuts.

On Margarita Island, no water is available to flush guest-room toilets at the five-star Venetur Hotel. Laundry service is suspended, the swimming pool sits empty and artificial waterfalls have dried up. The water trucked in isn’t nearly enough.

“Even Cuba is full of tourists now,” groused travel agent Susana García, as she stood in the empty Venetur lobby.