Odebrecht to pay reparations, Orchestra plays Old Cathedral, Garbage pick-up changes, Engineers oppose hydro plant concessions

Jueves, 11/7/2019

Hola, Todos –
Actividades –

De la pagina cultural –

Teatro – “Pentesilea, la reina de las Amazonas” opened Thursday in the sala Alfonso Carrasco at the CCE. It will continue viernes y sábado. Cost: $5.00.

Cine de la India – Las Jornadas de Cine y Filosofía will run until el viernes with a film and analysis a las 18:00 in the Hugo Ordóñez auditorium at the Facultad de Jurisprudencia at the U. of Cuenca. Friday’s movie will be “Mahatma.”

Odebrecht says it will pay government for damages.

Concierto – The Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuenca will perform mañana in the Catedral Vieja. The concert will be in honor of the 90th Anniversary of MTOP. The program will include the world premiere of a piano concierto by Carlos Hernández and Sibelius’ “Finlandia.”

Book launch – “Entre Canarias y Ecuador” by Spanish historian José Manuel Castellano will be launched mañana a las 19:00 in the Museo Pumapungo.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Contratarán a privados para recolección de la basura en Cuenca (Private contractors to be hired to collect garbage in Cuenca) – The Empresa Municipal de Aseo de Cuenca (EMAC EP – the garbage company) will contract out 30% of it’s garbage collection to the private sector at a cost of $3,950,000. The contractor will cover a consolidated area of the city including all 15 urban parishes and the 7 rural parishes of Ricaurte, San Joaquín, Sayusí, Baños, Turi, El Valle y Santa Ana. The second change is in the frequencies and hours of collection which will start el próximo 14/8. <You’ve got a month to figure out what zone you live in. Or just put the garbage out normally and find out if your days changed.>

There is a map on Page 4A of the print edition showing each collection zone and a table with the new days and hours. The middle day will still be the day to put out recyclables.

Zone 1 – Totoracocha M-W-F 8-12:00
Zone 2 – Bellavista M-W-F 13-17:00
Zone 3 – Ricaurte M-W-F 15-19:00
Zone 4 – Centro Histórico M-W-F 20-24:00
Zone 5 – Yanuncay Tu-Th-S 8-12:00
Zone 6 – El Cebollar Tu-Th-S 13-17:00
Zone 7 – Baños Tu-Th-S 15-19:00
Zone 8 – El Ejido Tu-Th-S 20-24:00

Odebrecht – The damages caused by the construction company pretty much covers all of their operations in Ecuador. Representatives from the Anti-corruption Secretary, Attorney General, Prosecutor, and Comptroller’s offices met with 3 regional directors of Odebrecht to plan a roadmap for reparations to the country caused by illegal contracts during Correa’s administration. This meeting will not affect the prosecutor’s investigations.

Plaza San Francisco – In the past few weeks, at least 5 merchants in the SF Plaza have been robbed of merchandise. Robbers easily break the the thin wood slats and can reach in and take clothing, shoes and other items. <Are the slat sturdier at the Rotary Plaza?>

Migrants – 17 federal, municipal and civic entities met to coordinate their activities in dealing with personas en situación de movilidad (people in a situation of mobility – <sounds a lot more humane than “illegals”>). A Unidad de Atención (Attention Unit) has been created to guarantee migrants rights to health, education, food, and others. The unit gives psychological attention, legal advice, workshops in edu-communication and more. It expects to serve 3,500 people by the end of the year.

Water service – The Cebollar water treatment plant was not getting a sufficient flow of water resulting in some water shut-offs and in low pressure. The affected area was along De Las Américas from the redondel with the Simón Bollívar monument to Control Sur. <You probably already know if it affected you. One of the alternatives is to interconnect Cebollar with the Tixán Plant. The water flow shortage is an unusual event.

Federación de Barrios de Cuenca (FBC) – Representatives from 261 barrios will meet el sábado to officially present their requests regarding frequent crimes. People all over the city are worried about burglaries in houses, of cars, and of car accessories.

Sopladora – Engineers are saying that concessionizing the hydroelectric plant doesn’t make sense. The Comptroller has reported incomplete work and equipment and said a $305 million fine should be applied for incompletion. Another issue is that Sopladora does not function in isolation, but is part of the Complejo Hidroeléctrico Paute Integral which includes the Mazar and Molino power plants. Those two plants, generating 170 and 1,100 MW, are fed by a reservoir. However, Sopladora doesn’t have a reservoir so used water from the Molino plant is piped to Sopladora. Also in the complex is the Cardenillo project, which takes used water from Sopladora to power its turbines. It should be constructed so the Paute Integrated Hydroelectric Complex can be completed. A commercial engineer with a specialty in electricity said partial concessioning isn’t “sana” (sane) for any of the parties. <Which means the whole thing winds up in private hands and I’ll be really glad I stuck with gas cooking.>

And that’s all for today so Hasta la Próxima Semana –

Jeanne