In less than a week, EPM drastically changed its decision to stop providing water, sewage, and cleaning services in the municipality of Quibdó. Despite the fact that last Friday, June 24, that company had already slammed the door on the Superintendence of Public Services (Superservices), stating that it was not feasible to extend its presence in the capital of Chocó until December, this Wednesday it reversed its position on behalf of a crossing of trills between the elected president Gustavo Petro and the mayor of Medellín Daniel Quintero.
Although according to the evidence in several trades in which it was warned of the serious impacts that this decision could cause, EPM’s determination did not seem to be reversed until the end of last week. However, through a brief conversation on Twitter, it was that the inhabitants of Quibdó managed to get out of the uncertainty in which they had been mired for several weeks.
To understand this Wednesday’s controversy, in which the tense relationship between the Superservices and the Medellín Mayor’s Office came to the fore, we must go back to January 11, 2005, when the Superservices took possession of the Quibdó Public Companies (EPQ ) after it went into liquidation.
After accumulating more than $2.1 billion in debt and dragging multiple complaints and problems in the provision of its services, EPQ entered a slow agony that, although it is not over yet, has left the inhabitants of the capital of Chocó in permanent anxiety.
Under this scenario, EPM landed in the region on March 31, 2008, after sealing an inter-administrative agreement with EPQ in liquidation, taking charge of supporting and operating the provision of these basic services in the municipality.
During the last 14 years, the company from Antioquia has been expanding its presence in the municipality, by signing extensions in which it has remained an emergency operator while the underlying problem is resolved.
Precisely, this Wednesday’s discussion took place as a result of the fact that the last extension of that agreement will expire this Thursday, June 30, and EPM had already expressed in writing its refusal to extend it once again.
The turn of the situation occurred in a matter of a few hours. Around 7:30 am, following the expiration of the term, Petro raised the issue and asked EPM not to leave the inhabitants of Quibdó up in the air.
“Heeding the call of the Quibdó community and given that there has been no solution to the continuity of the aqueduct, sewerage and sanitation service, I ask EPM to maintain its support for the operation until we have a definitive solution, with the manager Jorge Andrés Carrillo ”, Petro wrote on his Twitter account, capturing the official EPM account.
In a matter of 23 minutes, without EPM having referred to the issue, Mayor Daniel Quintero spoke for the company and its Board of Directors and assured that, after analyzing the issue, it had already been decided to maintain the company’s presence in Quibdo.
“Count on it, Mr. President. At this time, the EPM board of directors has given instructions to maintain the operation. We hope that the new Superservices team puts people first and not the interests of the GEA”, said the mayor, taking advantage of the situation to throw darts at Superservices.
Half an hour later, the manager of EPM, Jorge Andrés Carrillo, joined the quick virtual conversation and reiterated that the company would maintain the service in that area.
“Faced with your request, EPM will communicate its willingness to maintain the operation of the aqueduct, sewerage and sanitation services as it has done for the last 14 years after Superservices intervened the Quibdó Public Companies (EPQ) in liquidation,” he said. Cheek.
Almost an hour and a half later, the Superintendent of Public Services, Natasha Avendaño García, contributed to the crossing of trills, but in this case revealing at least three trades in which she denied EPM.
The first of them is a letter dated June 10, in which Superservices asked EPM to maintain its presence in Quibdó at least until December 31 of this year.
According to what is read in the document, signed by the director of Intervened Entities and in Liquidation, Lucía Hernández Restrepo, Superservices was concerned about the low interest in two tenders with which it seeks to hire new operators for water, sewage and cleanliness.
“The Superintendency considers a new extension of the collaboration agreement necessary and responsible, to guarantee the provision of aqueduct, sewage and sanitation services to the inhabitants of the municipality of Quibdó until the aforementioned steps are completed,” reads the letter. .
The second document is a response from EPM to that first letter, dated last Friday, June 24, in which in less than two paragraphs the company slammed the door on Superservices and considered the extension unfeasible.
“EPM considers that it is not possible to access said extension of the agreement, understanding that its purpose has already been fulfilled and the transition conditions were met for the EPQ in liquidation to receive the operation on the agreed date, defined for the next 30 of June of this year,” reads the response, in which Carrillo indicated that EPM’s support would be limited to “delivering the operated systems” for a joint.
Superintendent Avendaño added a third letter sent yesterday in which that entity implored EPM to reconsider its decision, warning that it could have serious impacts for that territory.
After the announcement by manager Carrillo, which was also replicated in the official accounts of EPM, during the early hours of the afternoon of this Wednesday, the company indicated that the extension would be for another six months.
“(…) with the request of the President-elect and in response to the directive of the Board of Directors of EPM and the president of this body, Daniel Quintero, the Company has decided to communicate its willingness to extend the agreement for six more months,” he reported. EPM in a statement in the afternoon.
Two days before being reinstated in his position, from which he was suspended for his alleged participation in politics in favor of the Historical Pact, Mayor Daniel Quintero had indirectly alluded to the flags that would represent the arrival of a new government. “Vote for yourselves, for your children and for your families. Think of the black communities, of the indigenous people,” the mayor noted that Sunday, June 19.
The 132,918 inhabitants of Quibdó also seem to agree with that call, whose Mayor’s Office celebrated on Wednesday EPM’s decision to back down its untimely departure from the region after a tweet from Gustavo Petro.