Crossword between the manager of the Quito Metro and residents of the Solanda neighborhood who claim for the damage to their houses

The morning of this Friday, January 7, 2022, Efraín Bastidas, manager of the Quito Metro, and Daniela Valarezo, Secretary of Security and Governance, gave a press conference on the attention provided by the Municipality of Quito to the problem of sinking and structural destruction of several houses in the Solanda neighborhood, in the south of the capital.

The Inhabitants have denounced that the damage is due to the construction of the tunnel that passes under their houses and that belongs to the Quito Metro, work that has not yet started commercial operations.

Bastidas pointed out that, in the new administration of Santiago Guarderas, three working groups have been held. He also pointed out that will contract a study to conclude on the responsibility existing in the damages of this sector; It will be delivered within a period of between five and six months, as reported.

This, to complement a study carried out before by the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, in which it concludes that various factors, such as the ground water table (humidity), the water drainage work, among others, contributed to the problem of these houses.

Furthermore, according to the manager of the Quito Metro, “the first causality is that Solanda has bad ground, It is a land with a high water table. We find 58 technical sheets of houses with problems of fissures and cracks before the Metro passes; this information is notarized, “he asserted.

Given these statements, residents of the affected neighborhood who attended the press conference interrupted their statements with complaints. “Why don’t you present those documents?” yelled one of the attendees. “There is no signature of responsibility,” emphasized another person.

When asked by a journalist about the $ 3 million offered by former Mayor Jorge Yunda To help the residents of Solanda, Bastidas expressed that they were only offers without technical or legal support. “The mayor (Jorge) Yunda in his time He offered that money from the construction company would be allocated without its approval; He offered that he was going to use funds from the insurer, without the insurer having approved it ”.

Attention to two families

The Secretary of Security and Governance, Daniela Valarezo, announced that several properties were analyzed by the Risk Directorate, categorizing them according to their respective damages. From this, they conclude that 36 are at moderate risk, that is, damaged masonry, damage to structural elements, among others.

In addition, he reported that Two families started a home relocation plan on January 3. The Municipality will deliver these houses in March, once the entire process is complete, Valarezo explained.

He also pointed out that, to access this relocation plan, citizens have to comply with various requirements established in the Municipal Code, such as having lost their homes due to geomorphological phenomena, they must be owners of the property for more than four years, find yourself in a condition of poverty, They must not own another home and the head of the household must present their wishes to access the plan. (I)