Plant that provides drinking water to populations of three Manabi cantons is at risk of collapse, authorities warn

SANTA ANA, Manabi

During the month of November, the Guarumo drinking water treatment plant, located in the Santa Ana canton, has suffered five stoppages of activities due to various inconveniences, such as deterioration and momentary damage to filters, impulsion pumps and even in the area electrical.

This has caused the abrupt suspension of the processing and distribution of drinking water for populations of three Manabi cantons, in a plant that when it was built had the projection of offering more than 40,000 cubic meters of drinking water every day.

This plant was built by the defunct Manabí Rehabilitation Center (CRM), between 1969 and 1970, and after the dissolution of the CRM in 2009, in the government of former President Rafael Correa, it was arranged in 2011 that its administration be delivered to the Municipality of Santa Ana.

Currently, The plant provides a daily average of about 24,000 cubic meters of drinking water for a large part of the population of Santa Ana, towns in the canton 24 de Mayo and various sectors of Portoviejo, mainly the urban parish Colón and some of its communities located on the left bank of the river that bears the name of the capital of Manabí.

But before the delivery of the administration, The company had been suffering from some inconveniences due to lack of maintenance, according to Oscar Anchundia, an analyst from the Department of Drinking Water and Sewerage of the Municipality of Santa Ana..

“These problems have unfortunately been inherited for decades, due to the lack of preventive and corrective maintenance of the plant as such. Unfortunately now we face all these consequences, and we are now urgently intervening in the filters with corrective maintenance”Anchundia pointed out.

After the strong earthquake that occurred at dawn last Sunday in much of the country, and which had Peru as its epicenter, a new decoupling was also generated in the treatment plant. Even due to this inconvenience, since last Sunday, the inhabitants of three cantons that benefit from drinking water have not had a supply of the liquid, generating uncertainty in the population.

Faced with these inconveniences, The Municipal Public Potable Water Company of Portoviejo (Portoaguas) assigned personnel who, together with a technical team from the Municipality of Santa Ana, worked to resume the drinking water production process in order to supply liquid to thousands of inhabitants of three cantons. From today the water distribution was gradually resumed.

Jean Carlos Giler, general manager of Portoaguas, indicated that it is necessary to make some adjustments in areas, such as a backwash system, filters, decanters, in a plant that has an average production of 1,200 cubic meters per hour.

“We were able to identify that one of the filter base plates had become uncoupled as a result of the earthquake last Sunday. This Tuesday we have supported the cleaning of decanters, taking advantage of the fact that the plant is working on other processes, such as filtering.“Giler pointed out.

Access road to canton 24 de Mayo blocked due to lack of drinking water

Operating the Guarumo plant means an annual investment of $ 1 million, but the collections per year do not exceed $ 500,000 for the consumption of 3,748 users that Santa Ana has and the average that Portoaguas should pay for the provision of water for a part of the inhabitants of Portoviejo.

However, Orlando García, mayor of Santa Ana, indicated that the municipality of Portoviejo owes this council about $ 2.4 million for several months of drinking water consumption. The previous week an agreement was reached to make disbursements and pay off a debt that Giler is not unaware of and that he has promised to help pay off.

García indicated that for the moment we must think about the future and not only momentary measures, because there is a risk that the Guarumo plant will collapse, and the damage would be for a longer time and would generate more effects on the population.

“We know that the problem is serious, and we are already thinking of a comprehensive repair of the plant, the amount of which is close to $ 20 million,” declared García, who added that he does not rule out declaring Santa Ana in emergency due to the current situation that suffers, so he considers that the plant has already completed its useful life.

Last october, The plant was visited by the Vice President of the Republic, Alfredo Borrero, who stated that the Government intends to help in projects related to drinking water, as he argued that populations cannot develop without the elemental liquid.

García said he trusts that the Government will give the necessary support to Santa Ana. However, he said that time is the worst enemy for the drinking water processing plant, which has damage to impulsion pumps, imperfections in filters and transportation pipes. that have already completed their useful life. (I)