The grayish stream of water that comes out of the pipe looks like liquid cement, but in reality, it is water from the Chambas River that will end up in the water table as waste from the water treatment plant that is "halfway" between the pumping station of Los dogs and the people of Punta Alegre.
Its location, however, defines it because "halfway" is a state that should not be allowed there, as long as the water cycles reach seven days, although on average it is usually received every three or four.
In the neighborhoods in Punta Alegre, people rotate the water. Some today and others in three or four days, or more. It is imprecise. Unless it accumulates, nobody has it every day. Of course… it is “good, good” water, emphasizes Nolasco del Sol Márquez, the man who operates the Punta San Juan water treatment plant and has worked on it since it was installed there in 2005.
Moreover, there the magnetizers already removed its solids and the sweepers ended up draining them through that pipe, where the dirty water comes out to demonstrate, by the way, the need to have made it drinkable.
This is how the wastewater from the water treatment plant came out. Twice a day they open that outlet valve. Through another conduit, the treated water rises to the elevated tanks that provide water to more than six thousand inhabitants.
The problem, however, is not with the output, but with the input. It was assumed that a plant designed to purify 25 liters per second and reach 90 cubic meters in an hour, not a "drip of water" would enter.Measurements say that thread is less than half of what you need. Last week, for example, it behaved between 12 and 13 liters per second, says Jorge Luis González Ferrer, the head of the plant for more than 10 years.
Causes? A pump is missing from the community of Los Perros to drive greater volume. On the other hand, there is a lack of an aqueduct in Los Perros so that the town becomes independent and there is no need to “share” the water from the conductor between Los Perros and Punta Alegre. Alternatively, it is necessary to put more barriers so that the water from the canal does not reach the pipe with so much mud and snail and the entrance by gravity is not aggravated, then, by blockages.
Each of these impediments breaks the equivalence, "and if the same volume that we have at the exit does not enter us, we have to accumulate water and lengthen cycles, do you realize?" Jorge Luis asked Invasor, minutes before the member of the Central Committee and first secretary of the Party in the province, Liván Izquierdo Alonso and the governor Tomás Alexis Martín Venegas, would arrive at the place.
The first secretary of the Party in the province, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, and the governor, Tomás Alexis Martín Venegas, arrived at the plant where several actions were recently carried out.
That is why the indication of the first secretary was precise: “times must be shortened. We cannot delay the solutions”. In situ, efforts would begin to locate a pump and the call to urgently resolve everything that obstructed the path of water to homes.
With the same demand, he would reach Máximo Gómez, probably the Popular Council most affected by Hurricane Irma in the entire country. Of the 1,368 total landslides that Chambas had, more than half were in Punta Alegre, where there are still 364 pending.
“At the rate they are going, they could need almost three years to solve this problem and that cannot be. They are families that are still in difficult conditions, sheltered, and we have to speed up the work.
We have to ask ourselves why we have not made more progress and figure it out. And we have to work, first, with the resources that are available, exhaust those possibilities, and then stop for what is missing,” said Liván.
Governor Tomás Alexis gave his considerations in this regard and pointed out that, in addition to resources, there has been a lack of consecration of many affected to help build their house, in the same way that greater support has been needed from the community and from the organizations that “sponsor” those labors.
This assertion was shared by Tania Nuez González, provincial director of Housing, who assured that in Punta Alegre "they can put the highest rod and advance in the construction sequences", because, sometimes, when the resource arrives, they take time to use it, a sign of that they could go on working on other elements.
According to Ariel Gonzáles Escalante, municipal director of Housing in Chambas, of the 90 pending subsidies today 33 are in completion and towards that, he said, the greatest efforts should be concentrated with the direct support of all those responsible. In the same way, he expressed, it is necessary to reinforce the work of the two state companies that must complete some 85 homes there this year.
However, he clarified that, due to the availability of resources and forces, this year's execution plan does not plan to solve all the landslides in the municipality.
Hence, Liván Izquierdo's insistence on working more efficiently to, at least, achieve what was proposed. “An office in Punta Alegre must function permanently with a direct manager. Starting this Monday, it has to be like this. If this was the most affected place in the province, a manager must be here to check the progress of the works daily, without wasting a day.”