Mining impact on water and soil studied, Tram maintenance contract talks, Symphony performs Saturday, Nutritional quality of comida tipica

Miércoles, 4/9/2019

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Conciertos – The OSC will perform the 9 symphonies of Luis Humberto Salgado in three concerts on the first 3 sábados in septiembre a las 20:00 in the teatro Pumapungo. Free.

Book launch – “Nigeria” will be launched Thursday a las 19:00 in the Casa de las Posadas (Gran Colombia 12-42 y Octavio Cordero). It is the thesis project for two students in the Universidad de las Artes.

Watercolor exhibit – A show by Hugo Picón will open Thursday a las 19:00 in the Casa del Artista (Av. Loja y Cantón Gualaceo).

Overhead view of area where the historic house on Hermano Miguel once stood.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

La Asunción – La Asunción Parish in Girón parish will celebrate its 167th anniversary el próximo 8/9 and the following weekend. On the 14th there will be a crafts and tourist fair, and on the 15th there will be a civic parade.

Suscal – The canton is celebrating its 23d anniversary with activities starting miércoles until el 27/9. There will be a ceremony and Andean ritual of starting the fiestas mañana a las 10:00 on the sacred Mesa Loma. Other activities include a mass or two, parades, election of the Reina and Ñusta, and social, sports and cultural events.

Otras cosas –

Titular – El mantenimiento del tranvía acuerdan hoy (Tram maintenance agreement today) – Mayor Palacios met with high level representatives of Alstom, the French firm that built the 14 trains, to talk about a maintenance contract. The lack of a maintenance agreement was one of the reasons the tranvía could not start operating. Alstom is proposing a contract of $15,500,000 for 4 years and the city is analyzing the proposal. Two other firms are also interested – Metropolitano de Tenerife from Spain and Benito Roggio Transporte from Argentina. If a contract is signed with Alstom, the trams would start running again late this year.

Demolished historic house – The city is preparing architectural studies to serve as a reference for the demand that the property owner of an historic house in El Centro reconstruct the house with the same materials at his own expense. There are plans and photos of details of the house.

The Fiscalía is investigating the responsibility for damage to cultural heritage. This crime has been punishable with up to 3 years in prison, but that has not been applied due to various causes. <Maybe owners of El Centro historic properties are the kind of people who just don’t get put in prison.> The house showed up in the first property records in 1901 and the previous owners believe it was built in the early 1800s, and last changed owners el junio pasado. <The new owners didn’t waste any time clearing the property down to the dirt.>

The National Police do not need a search warrant to intervene in the demolition of a patrimonial building because it would be treated as a delito flagrante (blatant crime – I like crime in progress – one that took all weekend to commit.).

Nutritional data – The Chemistry Department of the U. of Cuenca published a Tabla de Composición de Alimentos (Food Composition Table) in junio with the nutritional content of 129 representative foods of Cuenca, both raw and cooked. The study was started in 2009, finished in 2017 and presented en junio of this year. It includes foods such as humitas, mote pillo and sucio, local crops such as nabo de chacra, meats like cuy <You think you’re going to find cuy in Dr. Snakeoil’s 1,000 favorite foods calorie counter?>, espumilla, nata, and chicken giblets.

Monitoring mining projects – The U. of Cuenca is monitoring water resources in the mining areas of Loma Larga y Río Blanco. The director of the Programa para el Manejo del Agua y del Suelo (Promas – Water and Soil Management Program) said there are 4 components to their work. The first is the hydrology of the zone and to determine the quantity of both surface and subsurface water. The second is a detailed study of the quantity and quality of the soils that cover the watersheds. The third is to place water quality monitoring equipment. The fourth is to establish if there are or are not underground aquifers in the zone influenced by the projects. <I hope that water held in the “sponge” that is the páramos counts the same as an underground lake.>

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne