CAPAMA Faces More Lack of Service Complaints

(Acapulco, NA 18 November) In “Postal,” a low-income subdivision of suburban Acapulco, the residents have joined to chorus of complaints from other neighborhoods about the lack of running water. One inhabitant told Novedades Acapulco that “Capama deceives us; they promise to come fix the lines so we can have running water, and they have not shown up for three months.” The unhappy customers say that their water taps have collapsed since CAPAMA last sent personnel to make repairs three months ago. “But they abandoned the job and left the pipes in worse condition than they were in before.” The Postal community has been bringing in water tanker trucks at $600 pesos per trip. “We are desperate because we have no water and have requested the utility over a thousand times to come fix the problems that they themselves caused. But all they do is promise to come, and we keep on waiting. Truthfully, we have no more money with which to call in more tanker deliveries.”

One resident called on acting mayor, José Luis Ávila Sánchez, to make a personal inspection of the neighborhood, to see the conditions they are living in, with no water for toilets, baths, laundry or cooking. Another called CAPAMA’s director, Rigoberto Félix Días, “a liar for promising in a public meeting in Zapata that he would immediately send personnel to resolve the problem, and would personally see to a solution. Two months later, neither he nor his people have set foot in the subdivision.” In spite of political promises by then-mayoral candidate Manuel Añorve Baños that Acapulqueños would have “water all day, every day,” residents say the situation has never been worse. “We are not asking for favors. We are just demanding that they live up to their obligations.” Now that Añorve Baños is running for governor, he may be discovering that “water politics” can be a two-edged sword.