By Noris Soto and Fabiolo Zerpa
On Bloomberg News
To read the entire article go to Bloomberg News
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-18/yellow-water-dirty-air-power-outages-venezuela-hits-a-new-low
The tap in her apartment yields water only every two weeks. It comes out yellow. Her 8-month-old granddaughter is ill. And as Yajaira Espinoza, a 55-year-old hairdresser, made her way down the halls of Caracas university hospital on Friday, Zika cases evident in the rooms around her, a dense ash-filled smog enveloped the city.
"I am so sorry for my daughter, because I know she suffers silently," she said. "This situation is hard."
It has been an exceptionally painful year for Venezuelans, suffering from violent crime, chronic shortages, plummeting oil prices on which they depend, declining health and fractured government. Yet this past week it seemed to reach a new low. A kind of resigned misery spread across a city that had once been the envy of Latin America.
A sudden combination of natural disasters joined man-made failures. The smog, called calima, is a meteorological phenomenon that involves ash and dust clouds fairly common for this time of year. Meanwhile a prolonged drought blamed on El Nino and related forest fires has arrived. Levels at the Guri dam in the south, which produces 40 percent of the country’s electricity, fell to a record low of 242.33 meters on Monday.
Water Trucks Robbed
The lack of public order means attempts to alleviate the problems are going poorly. Water trucks dispatched to help reduce suffering from the drought, for example, are being routinely robbed.
“Two or three times a week a water truck we send out is robbed,” said Tatiana Noguera, a water official. “The trucks get stopped by gangs who make the driver change the route and discharge the water in an area they control.”
More than 3,700 cases of respiratory illness related to calima have been reported at state health centers around Caracas since March, said Dr. Miguel Viscuna, an epidemiologist. Medicine -- like toilet paper, chicken and other basic goods -- is increasingly hard to find.
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3 comments:
Even though I know that Venezuela is going through difficult times, I couldn't help but notice the correlation that it has in the United States. In Flint Michigan, the same thing is happening in the water to American citizens.
I know people that recently came from Venezuela in fear that what happened in Cuba was going to happen in Venezuela. They had to quickly sell their belongings and come over as fast as they could before they would possibly be stuck there for what could be a very long time in very bad conditions.
It is such a bitter experience to read articles like this one. Situations like the ones depicted in this piece of writing always make think back to when President Chavez was alive, to its death and the deplorable circumstances around it. Makes me think about his legacy. Now. I'm not Venezuelan nor have ever had the pleasure to visit this great land, meaning my factual knowledge about what is going on there, until the latter changes, would remain at least debatable. Hopefully someday we'll be able to eradicate that malicious category of social classes. Will that solve the problem? I dont know. Maybe one day we'll all agree about something.
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