CAPAMA Reveals Heavy Indebtedness

Rigoberto Félix Díaz, the embattled chief operating officer of CAPAMA, Acapulco's water company, admitted yesterday that CAPAMA has been behind in payments to various entities, and now has a cumulation of unpaid current account debts in the amount of $340 million pesos. The account indebtedness is mainly to unpaid suppliers and for unfunded payroll benefits due to the social security administration for public workers in Guerrero (known as ISSSPEG). Some of these accounts go back as far as 2006. Mr. Díaz expressed optimism that this burden could be reduced by as much as $40 million pesos by year's end.

The revelation came during a ceremony of delivery of new equipment to CAPAMA by the National Water Commission (CONAGUA). CAPAMA appears almost daily in news reports for its inability to supply water to several neighborhoods or to prevent excess water from leaking out of an antiquated distribution system. Díaz said "we cannot state exactly, but at this time we have detected 58 hidden leaks, which we will start repairing immediately. Some are large, others small. We have been checking in the first stage from Papagayo Park to Costa Azul, which is where we have the hidden leaks." He added, "We have many leaks all over the city, not just in that sector. Every day we fix between 30 and 40, but there are so many that we can not take care of them all promptly." Díaz added that he believes 40 percent of the potable water put into the system is lost to leakages. The equipment just delivered to CAPAMA is valued at $4.5 million pesos, including trucks, inspection equipment, and ultrasound measuing devices.

As concerns the supply of water for the high tourist season, he said that the largest part of the work has already been finished and we expect "that things will change from December on." Díaz said that "we have gone through almost six months of multiple problems, caused mainly by projects to change the water lines or to resurface existing roadways."