No water - it's time CAAF fired someone!

[Emmi Smith]

Yes Aguas de Antigua are great. The door of my mete box fell off two years ago and it was very windy. Found it at the end of the street. Reported it and the girl at the office said that it was not their issue but that of a builder/handyman. OK I thought and off I went to do some shopping.  On my return, the door had been fixed by them!!!  Result!!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

from RTVAC today:

The Cabildo de Fuerteventura will launch a series of solutions to the different problems of CAAF.

The President of the Island Council and President of the CAAF, Blas Acosta, clarified today with the Government Group also present at a press conference, that a diagnosis has been made about the problems presented by the Consortium of Water Supply of Fuerteventura and that it has reached the conclusion of its "total abandonment", stating that a solution will be put in this regard and clarified that "the Consortium will not be privatized, it will remain public."

Also, Acosta recalled that since July 9 that the mandate began with the new Government Group in the Cabildo there have been 23 breaks in the supply network, just as CAAF has gone from having 140 employees, to having 108 today . For this reason, a series of solutions will be launched, among which it is worth highlighting: the award of the arrangement of the La Herradura water tank in Puerto del Rosario, for about 28,000 euros, in the case of a tank that had been standing for 16 years, assuming 16,000 cubic meters of water, that is, 16 million liters.

As a general interest, hydraulic works with a value of 10 million euros will be propelled so that “by next summer, the majoreros will not suffer more water cuts”. In turn, the desalination plant of Gran Tarajal, that of Corralejo will be expanded by 5,000 cubic meters and that of Puerto del Rosario by 7,200 cubic meters; and the Gran Tarajal deposit will be improved and the roof of the Agua de Bueyes Water tank, which is in poor condition, will be fixed.

For the northern part of the island, we will proceed to the Corralejo - Cotillo connection to give double entry to the service of Villaverde, Lajares and El Roque.

For its part, the acquisition of materials will cost 200,000 euros and workshops will cost 57,000 euros.

Currently, the acquisition of pipelines for 200,000 euros and leaks for 144,000 euros are in tender.

[Archer]

It is very commendable that Blas Acosta is promising €10million to resolve the issue by next summer, but he doesn't address the immediate water shortages.

We are living like we are in a third world country. No water again for 5 days! The same all summer long.
It may be ok in Caleta. But 1000's of people are affected in rural communities including tourists in rental villas and in a nearby rural hotel. They have no water. Tourists will not return to a destination that cnnot provide basic services.

And still no-one gets fired for incompetence.

I just hope it really does get fixed by next year. Crazy.

[Archer]

We ration it. As far as we can see, there is no shortage of water, just a supply-chain issue. If we knew when the next tank fill-up was coming it would be easier. 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I'm with Archer all the way on this one. We haven't had it quite as bad in Tindaya but still pretty dire all summer, very low pressure or nothing. Last week we had no mains water at all for 3-4 days. I phoned CAAF on day 2 and was told there was a major breakdown in the supply to the north of the island. I phoned on the evening of day 3 and was told it was repaired and water was on it's way out to all again. But, because everyone on route had used up their reserves it took another 24 hours to start to trickle through to us at the end of a rural supply pipe while all the reserve tanks were refilling. I said silent thanks everyday that we had invested in a new reserve tank and pumping system recently - it kept us going while the mains was out of action albeit we used the water sparingly not knowing how long it would need to last.

Several neighbours discovered that their reserve tank pumps had packed up and were in the unenviable position of having reserves that they couldn't access.

Our little local shop normally has one delivery of bottled water a week, last week they sold out on delivery day, couldn't get further deliveries and were taking their own van to other stores to load up as much as they could to keep the villagers going.

[Spitfire58]

Shocking in this day & age in a supposedly developed country. Will they be giving rebates for the time you have not had supply ?? I doubt it !! They should have been sending out tankers or lorries with bottled water to the cut off areas, same as they do in other countries, bet that didn’t happen either !!

[OMR + MIN]

Looks like its the turn of Tamaragua to suffer today!!! Hope its not for as long as Archer or Tamara suffered. Yes this will affect next seasons holiday bookings.!!!!!!!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Hope you're back on soon OMR!
I noticed Wednesday when I was in Corralejo that neither of the wind turbines down at the DeSal plant were working, don't know if that has anything to do with it.

[OMR + MIN]

Hi Tamara,

Came back on late in the evening. They told us it's CAAF again! 

Can't supply adequately because of damaged  & outdated pipework that has not been repaired in years. They are losing 50% of their water through leaks. They can't afford the repairs!. 
So we are apparently getting cheap water to compensate???

Our Admin had a meeting last week. Result was, because it will take years for CAAF to catch up, we will be increasing our own Manzana water storage capacity with a huge new tank. This will be at great cost to ourselves & probably take a year to source, price, get licensed before we can start using it.

They also suggested we could all get our own smaller tanks in each garden. Probably €500 each estimated.

Cheers All   ?

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Glad you got back on relatively quickly OMR.
We had a new reserve water tank not long ago, best investment we could have made, but it's not just the tank, it's the plumbing and pump that you need to factor into the costs!
If your Manzana can get a new larger tank within 1 year I think that would be the best option.
Personally I think our mains water is pretty cheap - when we get it! Agree they need to make a big investment and renew the whole supply network.