Drought Forces Water Rations in Venezuela

www.sunherald.com Posted on Sun, Mar. 16, 2003 CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - After coping with food and fuel shortages during a recent two-month strike, Venezuelans are now dealing with scarcity of another essential: water.

This South American country is facing a drought that is severe even for its dry season, which runs from November to May. The government imposed water rationing in Caracas, whose 5 million residents are without water two to four days a week.

Things are especially tough for residents of the red-brick shantytowns that cling to the mountains ringing the city. The shortage is forcing slum dwellers to rely on water delivered by truck.

"Before we received water almost everyday," said Freddy Fuentes, an unemployed father of four. "It comes about once every two weeks now."

The shantytown where Fuentes lives lacks sewers and plumbing, so he and his neighbors buy water from a truck at $1.30 a barrel.

They haul it up a dusty mile-long hill in plastic containers to their tin and wood shack. One purchase "lasts a couple of days for washing, cooking, bathing and cleaning," Fuentes said.

Rationing could continue until the end of the dry season, said Jacqueline Faria, president of Hidrocapital, the government water company that serves Caracas.

Everyday, Faria appears in television advertisements pleading with Caracas residents not to waste water. To enforce that message, her agency swore in 100,000 kids as "water guardians," assigned with warning family and friends not to waste water.

The basin that feeds the Camatagua reservoir, the source of more than half the capital's supply, hasn't gotten rain for months.

"I've never seen it this low," said Juan Quintero, a fishing guide at Camatagua, 40 miles from Caracas.

Luis Olivares, a meteorologist at the Cajigal Observatory, which measures rainfall and weather conditions in Venezuela, said 2.3 inches of water fell in Venezuela's central region during November and December. None has fallen since.

"These figures generally reflect the quantity of rainfall across the country during that period," Olivares told The Associated Press.

The drought also has caused an increase in forest fires. Firefighters have put out 2,334 forest fires since October, most of them in the Avila mountain range that looms over Caracas, said Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena. That compares with 1,320 forest fires reported in the area for the full year beforehand.

The government has banned residents from using all but three of the trails in the Avila National Park because of the fire risk. On a highway bordering the park, motorists stop to fill up containers from trickling drain pipes.

The rationing is another headache in what has already been a difficult year for the impoverished country of 24 million.

The strike to try to force the ouster of President Hugo Chavez paralyzed Venezuela's vital oil industry, forcing motorists to wait for hours to fill their tanks. Fresh milk, soft drinks, beer, cornflour and some medicines disappeared from stores.

The failed strike ended last month, and fuel supplies have returned to normal. Shortages of some medicine and imported goods were starting to reappear, however, because of a new exchange control system that tightly regulates how Venezuelan can buy dollars.