Water shortage persists as city urges conservation; Summit considers youth unemployment; Fire in the mountains; No Cuenca blackouts until Monday

Nov 15, 2024 | 0 comments

Jueves, 14/11/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Inauguran el “Gran Piazza” en Machala (Opening of the “Gran Piazza” in Machala) – <This article is for all of you serious shoppers.> The Centro Comercial “Gran Piazza” on av. 25 de junio opened its doors today (jueves) in Machala. It’s considered the largest mall in the south of Ecuador. It has 117 stores and 47 kiosks over 3 stories with a total area of 100,000 sq. meters. There is an 8-screen movie theater, a food court with 19 locations, and 1,200 covered parking spaces.

Titular –

Delegates of the Ibero-American Summit discussed youth unemployment Thursday in a meeting at the Mall del Rio in Cuenca. (El Mercurio)

Empleo joven, reto regional (Youth employment, a regional challenge) – Representatives of business organizations from the 22 countries that comprise the ibero-american community met in the Mall del Río Convention Center to look for solutions to promote employment for youth <besides drug dealing which doesn’t require a degree, experience, or bureaucratic hurdles although there are other more lethal disadvantages> to attract investment, to eliminate the digital gender gap <how about the digital generation gap>, and to analyze the facilities that cities should offer to digital nomads <start with good coffee houses>. More than 1,000 business people participated in the panels at the XV Encuentro Empresarial Ibero-americano.

Cuenca –

“18% de ahorro de agua urge” (“18% water savings urged”) – Mayor Cristian Zamora disseminated a video in which he asked the population to save water due to the impending risk of rationing. He said that after a previous request, users saved 12%, but it’s now needed to save 18% more to maintain supply to the whole city. <Did you get your video? I got it from 2 sources, but it’s in Spanish. <18% is like using your toilet but only flushing it 4 out of every 5 times, skipping a shower every 5th day, or drinking 1 beer for every 4 glasses of water. Now is that so hard?>

De El Mercurio del miércoles, 13/11 (2 articles):

En tanqueros se entregará agua a usuarios de Nero (Water will be delivered to Nero users in tankers) – ETAPA will supply water in tankers for users in the Junta Administradora de Agua Potable y Saneamiento (JAAPyS) Proyecto Nero. This system that supplies about 40,000 residents in 54 communities in El Valle, Turi and Baños has not had water for over 15 days. This happened because of the reduced flow of the río Sacha, also known as the río Zhucay, which is the water source for the potable water plant for the JAAPyS. ETAPA will also determine the communities which can switch from the Nero system to ETAPA’s system. It will also identify houses which have double service from both systems, cutting them off from one of the systems, allowing opportunities for other residents.

Luis Nivicela, president of the JAAPyS said that the situation is critical with problems serving almost all the communities and for that, they asked for urgent help from ETAPA. The Nero system has not solidified the construction of a dam and reservoir to supply water during droughts. He said the system was designed for 3,000 ratepayers, but actually has 8,300. Their plant has the capacity to proces 70 liters per second, but is only working with less than half that because of the drought. One resident in El Valle said he split the cost with family and some neighbors to build a reserve tank which is filled by tankers that cost between $80 & $100 each trip. Another built a cistern and joined her neighbors to have it filled each week for about $85.

Llamado “urgente” al ahorro (Urgent” call to save) – The río Culebrillas, one of the 2 rivers that feed the El Cebollar water plant is at the point of going completely dry. This plant supplies at least 40% of the population and covers a large part of the Centro Histórico. It is also the oldest plant, dating to the 1950’s. ETAPA warned that if conditions don’t change, it could start rationing next week. Because of that, it issued an urgent call for the population to conserve water. Fabián Cazar, water and sanitation manager for ETAPA said that water from the Tixán system is being sent to the El Cebollar plant. The first water shut-offs will affect 10% of the population in this zone, and if conditions don’t improve, shut-offs will increase.

Educación –

Ecuatorianismos tienen ya un diccionario propio (Ecuadorianisms now have their own dictionary) – <And do those include la lengua Morlaca which is spoken in Cuenca? You proabaly already know one word – achachay.> The Diccionario Académico de Ecuatorianismos (DAE) is a project that took over 12 years to compile more than 10,000 expressions used in Ecuador that are different from other countries. <Your new excuse for not learning Spanish. Spanish isn’t useful when people here use Ecuatorianismos that don’t show up in your textbooks.> Many of the Ecuatorianismos have to do with botanical and zoological words coming from indigenous languages.

Sucesos –

De El Mercurio del miércoles, 13/11 (1 article):
15 incendios forestales activos en 7 provincias (15 active wildfires in 7 provinces) – 15 wildfires are burning in 7 provinces with 6 of those fires in Cuenca, Sígsig, Girón, and Nabon in Azuay Province. Fire department personnel said that the fires have consumed vegetation in Chaucha, Molleturo, Baños and Turi Parishes as well as close to th Cuartel Dávalos in the north of Cuenca. Of the 15 fires, 9 are in Azuay, 6 in Chimborazo, 5 in Cañar, 4 in Loja and one each in Imbabura, Guayas, and Pichincha. The Instituto Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología (Inamhi) issued an alert that there will be higher temperatures from 30-35° in the Litoral and interandean region until el viernes, 15/11. The high temperatures, combined with low humidity and masses of dry air will encourage wildfires in the provinces of Azuay, Bolivar, Cañar, Guayas, Loja, and Los Rios.

No blackouts unitl Monday – Most of Cuenca will continue to avoid electricity blackouts through the weekend, electric utility company Centrosur announced Thursday. Outlying suburban areas of the city, including Ricaurte, Río Amarillo, Las Orquídeas and Trigales, will experience blackouts as scheduled, the utility said.

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne