Acapulco Mayor Blames PRD Sabotage for CAPAMA Failures

(Acapulco, AN 24 January) Mayor Ávila Sánchez says that the authorities have received threatening phone calls about sabotage against CAPAMA, the hapless local water utility. According to the mayor, 12 water leaks have appeared in the last 10 days, mainly along the water line going up Cuauhtémoc (past the “Bicentennial Overpass”) and up the ridge to La Garita. He said that an independent labor group plans to take over CAPAMA’s offices next week, and that another group has threatened to commandeer the wells that supply water to Pie de la Cuesta and el Pedregoso.

The mayor said that the threatening phone calls have been attributed to “members of a political party,” which he identified as the PRD. “We have asked the parties not to make a political issue out of water,” he said. This is in spite of the fact that his former boss, Manuel Añorve, used potable water and the reform of CAPAMA as his main campaign promise in 2008, when he ran for mayor.

The tactic, said the mayor, is to open valves to increase water pressure beyond the tolerance of the pipeline, causing leaks. ”Only current or former CAPAMA employees would know how to do it,” he said.