City plans upgrades to public water system; Are there limits to self-defense? New cemetery for people and pets; El Paraíso lake gets new boats

Viernes, 30/8/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De El Mercurio del jueves, 29/8 (1 article):
Nulti tiene listo un festival dominical (Nulti is ready for a Sunday festival) – The El Tablón community in Nulti Parish is organizing the fifth cuy festival el domingo, 1/9 starting a las 8:00 with an athletic contest and performances by dance groups. Later, a las 9:00, there will be contests for the best dressed and biggest cuy along with more surprises. <Like a no hands cuy eating contest? The Waseca Horse Thief Detectives Association used to have a no hands blueberry pie eating contest at its annual 4th of July picnic. I wonder if my Mom had anything to do with my never entering the contest?> Servings of cuy will be sold in the afternoon while different entertainers perform. <My guess is that y’all would rather have the blueberry pie.>

Cuenca public utility ETAPA plans to expand its water retention ponds and add more ponds in the city’s Cajas Mountains watershed. (El Mercurio)

Titular –

Garantizar agua hasta 2050 es la prioridad: ETAPA (Guaranteeing water until 2050 is
the priority: ETAPA) – El Empresa de Telcomuni- caciones, Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (ETAPA EP – Telcommunications, Water and Sewer Company) has 4 key projects to guarantee a supply of potable water until at least 2050. The droughts which are getting longer, plus the increase in population, are forcing ETAPA to find new sources for capturing water. It is the main potable water provider in Cuenca and serves about 507,000 people, or 85% of the current population of the city. It currently operates 4 large plants: Tixán, Sustag, El Cebollar, y San Pedro as well as 22 smaller ones in rural zones. It is estimated that the population of Cuenca will be 1,077,106 in 2050 with a demand for 3,760 liters per second (l/s).

Veronica Polo, manager of ETAPA, announced the beginning of a project to interconnect the Tixán and El Cebollar plants to take better advantage of the regulated flow in the río Machángara. The design will be delivered in the first quarter of 2025 and will be used to seek financing from the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). The process to contract for a redesign of the Sustag plant will take place this year with the goal of interconnecting it to tanks currently supplied by the El Cebollar plant. Another project would build new mains to take unprocessed water from Sayausí to the El Cebollar plant. ETAPA is also planning to develop the 3d phase of the master plan which dates from 1987.

Edmundo Cisneros, civil engineer and hydrologist, said that 3 other projects have been analyzed in the last 10 years. One would be the construction of a dam to store water in the Dos Chorreras lake in the río Tomebamba watershed adjacent to the Parque Nacional Cajas (PNC). This dam would allow 1.2 millions of cubic meters of water to be stored and include a transfer from the Rasullana Creek to conduct water to the Dos Correras lake. Another project is the search for an aquifer in the río Tarqui where studies have indicated the presence of underground water. A 3d project is the Proyecto Hidroeléctrico Soldados Yanuncay (PHSY) which has been stopped since 2022. This would regulate the flow in the Yanuncay and provide a reserve for the Sustag plant.

Cuenca –

Niños caminan hasta tres horas para llegar a clases (Children walk up to three hours to get to school) – The 2024-2025 school year will start el 2/9 without school transport for the UE del Milenio “Victoria del Portete.” 8-year-old Carolina has to walk 2 hours along a trail to get to school since the school bus drivers have not been paid. She gets up at 4 to leave the house at 5 to get to school at 7:20. There was the same problem last year. Students didn’t have school buses for the first 15 days of school. Some parents contracted with private transport and others are waiting for the buses to start on el 23/9 since they can’t afford the weekly $10 per child fares. <Think about that – if you had 3 kids, the bus fare would be $130/month. Would that be possible on a basic salary of $460/mo? Either the kids eat or ride to school.> Jorge Riera, the rector of the school, said the Zone 6 Coordinator informed him that school buses were in the budget, but time is needed to start the service. Buses start picking kids up at 6:20, but there are still kids who need to walk some distance to the pick up points. <A lot different from my neighborhood where kids get door to door service, and are greeted at home by the cleaning ladies.>

De El Mercurio del jueves, 29/8 (3 articles):
Para nuevo cementerio se requieren usd 14 millones (New cemetery will require $14 million) – A new cemetery will cost $14 million which the city does not have. It would prefer to enlarge the existing patrimonial cemetery. Luis Peñafiel, manager of the Empresa Municipal de Servicios de Cementerios, Salas de Velaciones y Exequias (EMUCE EP – Municipal Cemetery, Funeral and Funeral Services Company) said the land for a new cemetery became available last year afer 10 years of litigation over land acquisition. Studies have been done but need to be updated. Peñafiel siad the need for a new cemetery isn’t immediate since existing one will serve for another 10-12 years.

400 nichos para mascotas (400 niches for pets) – <This the article I really wanted to translate, but it was just an inset for the lead article about the people cemetery.> The current cemetery will have an area to bury pets. EMUCE has acquired a mobile unit to support families in mourning. According to Luis Peñafiel, work on the pet cemetery will start in a month. 400 niches will be built where the ashes of cremated pets can be placed. The mobile unit will arrive in noviembre to attend to families, especially in rural sectors. <And who was that gringo who told me that Ecuadorians didn’t care for their domestic animals as much as gringos do?>

Legítima defensa tiene límites (Legitimate self-defense has limits) – The debate over legitimate defense and vigilante justice has resurfaced after a 22-year-old man was accused of manslaughter in Guayaquil for running over and killing 2 delinquents who assaulted him. The assault was captured on security cameras and showed 4 men on 2 motos intercepting the youth, hitting him, and threatening him with weapons. Experts in law and human rights were interviewed. Miguel Arias, an ex-judge in Cuenca, said that an action needed to meet 3 conditions to be legitimate defense.

These are illegitimate aggression, rationality of the means used for defense and lack of provocation by the defending party. <I didn’t understand the rest of what he said.> Rubén Calle, a lawyer and president of the Azuay Law Association, said that to determine if an action was a legitimate defense, the reason for the action has to be identified. <Same problem with the rest of what this lawyer said. Too much legal terminology and too complicated. If you really want the full article translated you’re going to have to hire a professional translator.>

Actualidad –

Nuevos botes para parque El Paraíso (New boats for El Paraíso park) – La Empresa Pública Municipal de Aseo (EMAC EP – The Municipal Public Waste Management Company) has invested about $20k to buy 13 new fiberglass boats for the park. <The garbage company also manages the public parks.> You can rent one of the 4 person boats for $3.00 for 30 minutes on los viernes, sábados y domingos from 8:00-16:00. Boaters need to wear life vests. María Caridad Vásquez, manager of EMAC EP, said the boats are comfortable and covered for rain and sun protection. She said EMAC also has a process to conserve the lake in the park including daily cleaning of solid wastes <From all those heedless boaters who throw food wrappers and other junk into the water?>, biweekly removal of sediments from the inflow to the lake, and removing accumulated sediment from the whole area every 2 years. <Sounds like it would be fun to go paddling around the little lake. Take advantage of the rainless days. With your luck you’ll be out there and the rainy season will start with a tropical downpour.>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne