BY Barbara Burton
The pumping station Mitre Square was an imperfect by a pump with insomnia during the early hours of Friday May 1 stopped supplying water to the great city of Mar del Plata. TN said that on Thursday at 7 am. But this imperfect fit chose the best Thursday of the season to prove to the rulers who do not control what they believe or do not need to be controlled: 1 May Day worker: HOLIDAY. How convenient! Hayase seen! Long weekend and Mardel, one of the cities most important Argentine Atlantic Ocean, can not provide water or its residents or those who managed to "leave a few days" from the bustle of the metropolis.
At this point is essential to describe the impact of system failure Sanitation: the control room and pumping equipment Mitre Square were flooded so they had removed five million liters of water from the site and then remove 4 engines, dry, fix the engine responsible for imperfect and replace them catastrophic to your site, in addition to replace the wiring: work of 96 hours, or 4 days. The percentage of the population for a couple of hours a night had no access to drinking water is unknown, because in a quick maneuver was diverted through the interconnected flow (left isolated areas of the service anyway), was minimized receiving power to some areas and across different institutions had 28 water tankers to supply water to those in need. The aggrieved people of Mar del Plata could not wash their cars, use their pools, wash their clothes or "hose" their villages and not to mention the inconvenience they had people staying in hotels in the area.
On Friday night the problem affected 10% of the population marplatense: 30000 100000 residences are people (back) and on Sunday the number was the same: 3 rd consecutive day without water, that ordeal! The number of tanks was reduced to 17 key points in the city and offered a number 0810 (not 0800) to report neighbors who wash their cars or use the pools.
Just today, May 5th to normal water supply in Mar del Plata. Finally finished the "disaster that was in the city," said a neighbor with two empty plastic bottles waiting to fill them with holy water. The secretary of the city government said "we are optimistic" and end the matter.
Now is when I change some numbers, I move right on the world map and development on the real problem that means drinking water in over forty countries worldwide. According to a UNESCO study in 2007, one of every four people in the world lack access to clean water and other studies carried out 2400 million people (almost 50% of the world) do not have basic sanitation. Worldwide there are over a hundred countries in semi-arid conditions and drought: Africa is the continent most affected but remains closely Asia, then Latin America and the Caribbean to a lesser but important degree, finally, Spain.
The drinking water shortage is the reduced supply and poor water quality. There is widespread and mainly two reasons: some sustainable and inefficient management, and pollution of resources.
Given these two reasons, it is clear that the countries most affected are those with fewer tools and resources for sustainable development of the resource. They are the "Third World", "developed countries" and (personally I prefer the term) "EDC's." But beyond the analysis that can be done, I seek not to dwell on the variables of the problem but in the attention devoted to it. Why
what is that per 100000 people, of which a percentage (no matter which) were tourists, without water for 4 days is generated such media hype? Africa and Asia are just a few minutes a year in "The titles of today" in every news and few lines in the articles of opinion.
Is it because in some countries is not news, exactly, that lack water and Mardel it? Or because we believe that the problem is beyond us? Will not concern us because it affects us (or at least we think so)? Whatever it is ... the greatest tragedy in this incident are the 5 million gallons of water wasted ...
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