In the Las Rosas neighborhood of Melchor Romero, a group of residents is hostage to a conflict between the neighborhood cooperative and the Absa company. It affects the area from 157 to 161 and from 151 to 520.
Juan Ortega, a local reference, explained that the aforementioned cooperative began to break Absa’s pipes to install their own and thus supply the neighbors. However, these modifications significantly reduced the quality and pressure of the water, a problem that they did not have before.
The broken pipes belong, according to the company, to Absa. But, since they don’t have meters, they can’t charge them for the service and that’s when the cooperative appeared. With their operators they began to replace them with their materials, with the intention that the neighbors be users of them.
The refusal is because the new pipes are smaller, which reduced the pressure on the neighbors. As if that were not enough, they left the work half finished and it is impossible to access the interior of the houses without running into puddles and mud.
“We want to conserve this water network. We go to Absa to ask for it but they tell us that the area is not released to set the meter. The other alternative is that they charge us by cubic centimeters, and we are going to go for that,” explained Juan Ortega.
To resolve the situation, they approached the Delegation, the Municipality, Absa, ADA (Water Authority) and the Ombudsman of the Province of Buenos Aires. No one held out a hand.
“We do not understand why, if the area was released for the cooperative, it was not done for Absa,” reflected the affected neighbor. “Here, the need is not water, what we need is the sewer. It is one of the problems that the cooperative comes, ”he added, referring to the fact that they will not be able to comply with this sanitary requirement.
“If it had good water pressure, fine, but if the pressure is going to be less, they are not improving our service. Four months ago we suffered cuts, under pressure, they tell us that they are going to take away our water, we go to the Ombudsman and we have no response, there is no response from the cooperative or the Municipality, the workers do not have credentials and work without orders. People are scared and can’t do anything,” he described.
They also denounced that from the cooperative they left “all the pipes of Absa open.” On January 17, with the high temperatures that were recorded, “they left us without water.” “They are working without a plan and with total impunity,” he added.
This caused a huge loss of water, a product of broken pipes, to take over the path. The fear grew. “If a boy passes by and falls, he drowns,” urged another affected neighbor, Bernardino Gómez.
reverse side
From the Melchor Romero Water Cooperative they explained that “that neighborhood” does not belong to the Absa company. It has 20% made from an old network that the Municipality installed a little over a decade ago.
Under their version, they detailed that the neighbors finished the ditching and the connection to the pump in question. The cooperative entered as a “service concessionaire” at the request of the Nation.
They ruled out leaving the area without service and extended that they have a term of five months of work. Once completed, residents must pay a monthly bill of around $800 for the consumption of 500 liters of water per day.
