Water cut decision still pending; Gov’t will subsidize electric bills; Ecuadorians feel unsafe going out at night; Drug seizures increase; New candidate named

Martes, 19/10/2024

Hola, Todos –

Titular –

Emergencia nacional por los incendios (National emergency due to fires) – See articles in today’s (martes) CHL.

Cuenca –

As compensation for the inconvenience of the blackouts, the government will not charge utility customers for the first 180 kw hours used in November and December this year and January and February in 2025.

De El Mercurio del lunes, 18/11 (1 article):
Cortes de agua, aún latentes; la lluvia “fue leve” (Water cuts, still latent; the rain “was light”) – María Veronica Polo, manager of ETAPA EP, said that if the river flows don’t improve, the first shut offs of water will be miércoles. <That means it will have to rain cats and dogs tonight plus chickens and cows.> The rain that fell el domingo in the north and NE parts of Cuenca was light while at least 10-15 days of constant rain will be needed.

To understand the current situation in the rivers, you need to know there are 3 rivers that feed potable water treatment plants. The Machángara is regulated by the Chanlud and Labrador dams and feeds the Tixán plant which supplies the northeastern sectors of Cuenca: Parque Industrial, Machángara, Totoracocha, and the north part of av. González Suárez. The Yanuncay feeds the Sustag plant which supplies half of the population in the eastern and southern zones of Cuenca: Barabón-San Joaquín, Barabón-Baños, Narancay-Turi, San Joaquín, San Joaquín alto, San Miguel de Putushi. The most worrisome river is the Tomebamba which, along with the Tarqui, is in a state of estiaje (low water <as in it’s hard to even see water>).

The Tomebamba feeds the El Cebollar plant which also receives water from the río Culebrillas which has almost completely dried up. El Cebollar supplies water to 50% of the population or about 200,000 people. The first water shutoffs will be to 9 zones served by this plant, but there were no resolutions from a meeting on el domingo about when shutoffs will start or not. The 9 zones listed in a map accompanying the article are the Centro Histórico, Ordóñez Lasso, Las Pencas, Miraflores, Estadio Alejandro Serrano Aguilar, Universidad de Azuay, Racar, Av. Don Bosco, and Ciudadela Álvarez. <I think everyone is waiting for a miracle and if it doesn’t happen, then the rationing will probably be announced at the last minute. So fill up some tanks or buy some bottled water.>

Nacional –

Planillas subsidiadas este mes (Subsidized bills this month) – With Executive Decree 442, issued el 30/10 by Pres. Noboa, Ecuadorians will not pay the electric bills from nov. & dec. of 2024 and from enero & febrero of 2025 as a compensatory measure for the blackouts since the middle of septiembre. <Is this another of Noboa’s promises backed by nothing but hot air?> Residential users who use 180 kw/hour each month or less will pay nothing for electricity. Your meter reading in noviembre will show up on your bill for diciembre which is when people will see the reduction.

Braulio Castro, an electrical engineer, explained that there will be hybrid bills which will contain consumption from octubre which needs to be paid, and a part of noviembre where the zero payment will be applied. The Ministerio de Energía y Minas specified that the facturas for the months when the compensation applies will not be zero since there are items that are not for electrical consumption. Charges for fire protection and garbage collection will still be on your bill and should be paid. Customers are still complaining that with all the outages, they are seeing bills that exceed the bills in previous months when logic says they should be less. <Maybe those savings can be used to buy bottled water when the water gets shut off.>

73% de ecuatorianos siente inseguridad al salir de noche (73% of Ecuadorians feel unsafe when going out at night) – According to a recent Gallup poll, 73% of Ecuadorians feel unsafe leaving their homes at night, a historic high, and the highest percentage among the 140 countries in the 2023 survey. The data increased still more for results from Guayas Province where 89% of the population admitted this worry. For the 2023 report from Gallup’s ´Global Law and Order’ survey, over 1,000 people over 15 years old from 140 countries were interviewed. Last year, the country was 5th in feelings of insecurity which affected 65%.

Drogas incautadas superan 262 t (Drugs seized exceeded 262 t) – So far in 2024, 262 tons of drugs were seized, with the quantity rising, which should end the year with a record number of seizures. This is an increase of 37.7% over the same period in 2023. <It’s the demand from all those Estadounidenses and Europeos who are self-medicating to cope with their stressful lives.>

De El Mercurio del lunes, 18/11 (1 article):
Antonio García será el que reemplace a Topic (Antonio Garcia to replace Topic) – Antonio García Reyes will replace Jan Topic as the presidential cantidate for the SUMA party. The vice-presidential candidate will be Mishelle Calvache. SUMA was obligated to replaced Topic when the Tribunal Contencioso Electoral (TCE – Electoral Disputes Tribunal) disqualified Topic for having federal contracts which is prohibited for candidates. Topic is filing an extraordinary protection action in the Corte Constitucional in rejection of the TCE’s decision.

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper (please don’t ask her for them). If information is incorrect, it is the responsibility of El Mercurio. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.