Dozens of neighborhoods in the southern area of the city of Córdoba remained on Friday night without drinking water service due to the rupture of a central pipeline near the Los Molinos water treatment plant.
From Aguas Cordobeses, the concessionary company of the municipal service, they indicated that they are working to repair the break in the 1,600-millimeter pipe that broke down in the early hours of Thursday.
The firm did not specify when the service will resume. The rain and the difficult access conditions to ground zero of the break made it difficult to define a precise picture.
If there are no new problems, they hope that this Saturday at the last minute the supply can begin to be restored gradually. But there are no guarantees yet.
“Under normal conditions we might have solved this problem in less time, but since the area was flooded and the machinery might not enter, the work was complicated,” he told The voice Cristina Barrientos, spokeswoman for Aguas Cordobesas.
Faced with this critical situation, the firm implemented a contingency plan to supply the establishments most exposed due to lack of water, such as hospitals, clinics and nursing homes.
Affected neighbors
In turn, it set up seven hydration points in different areas of the city so that residents can supply themselves with drinking water.
Already on Thursday night, many households exhausted the reserve of the home water tank.
The quadrant affected by the lack of water covers almost the entire south and southeast area of the city of Córdoba.
There are just over 40,000 residential units according to the company. In a moderate calculation they are equivalent to more than 160 thousand people.
On the map, the 150 affected neighborhoods are equivalent to almost a quarter of the city of Córdoba.
With different maneuvers, Aguas Cordobesas tried to link part of the system that is supplied with the Los Molinos plant and transfer water from the Suquía plant, the other one that operates for the Capital.
Emergency plan
On the morning of this Friday, the company began to set up the contingency scheme with seven hydration points to meet the demand of the neighbors.
It was only around 4:00 p.m. that all the 3,000-liter tanks were in place. Some were recharged several times.
“Since last night we have been without water. We have not bathed. I hope he comes back quickly, ”said María Marta, a neighbor from the Ferreyra neighborhood who lives with her husband and her two children.
At the points located in the Empalme and San Vicente CPCs and in the Altamira neighborhood, the demand from residents was constant despite the rain. There were queues of up to an hour to load drums and bottles.
“We are having a bad time. This situation is complicated. We can’t use the bathroom. Luckily it’s not as hot as last week,” said Oscar, a retiree from the San Vicente neighborhood, who lives with his wife.
The estimate made by the managers sent by the companies to assist in loading is that each person took regarding 30 liters. In other words, one tank is enough to supply 100 people.
Meanwhile, the points in the Iponá and Parque Vélez Sársfield neighborhoods were not in such high demand, so the company Aguas Cordobesas decided to relocate them starting this Saturday in the places where there were more lines of residents.
In several of the points, such as the CPCs in Empalme and the Jardín neighborhood, the municipal officials in charge of these units coordinated the organization of the supply, opened the doors of the centers and sought to contain the demand of the residents.
complex work
The company specified that the break is located between the Los Molinos water treatment plant and the southern pumping station, near Camino 60 Cuadras.
Due to the storm and the ground conditions, the operators were only able to find ground zero of the problem on Friday morning. After noon they just began with the tasks of excavating and draining the pipes.
Accessing the area was also complex because the field where the break was located was completely flooded and they had to improvise a path for the crane that must operate to change the pipe to arrive.
Last night, the workers were finishing the excavation. It remained to remove the damaged part, restore it, carry out the verification tests and finally restore the service.
