Economist: How to create a water shortage in a waterlogged nation
Unfed and unwashed
How chavismo makes the taps run dry in Venezuela
Plentiful rain plus Bolivarian socialism equals water shortages
May 10th 2018 | CARACAS
IT IS the rainy season in Caracas and the reservoirs are full. But most of the 5.3m people who live in and near the city have not had regular running water for at least a month. Venezuela is an oil-rich country that cannot pay for food and medicines. Now its autocratic regime is showing that it can create shortages even when nature provides abundance. “I’ve forgotten what it is like to bathe in running water,” says Soledad Rodríguez, a graphic designer.
Supplying Caracas with water is not easy. The city is 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) above sea level. The nearest big river, the Tuy, flows on the other side of a mountain range. Earlier governments had cracked these problems. Marcos Pérez Jiménez, a dictator in the 1950s, oversaw construction of a system of pumps and reservoirs that kept up with the city’s fast growth.
Hugo Chávez, whose election as president began Venezuela’s “Bolivarian revolution” in 1999, improved water supply to poor areas but did not upgrade infrastructure. By 2005 shortages were a problem. Chávez, who died in 2013, responded, characteristically, with lots of cash and publicity and little supervision. He and Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded him as president, spent $10bn to little effect.
Now the city is getting less water than it did in 1999, says José de Viana, who in pre-Chávez days was president of Hidrocapital, a state-owned water utility. The main job requirement for workers is loyalty to the leftist regime. This has led to its “de-professionalisation”, says Mr de Viana.
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https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/05/12/how-chavismo-makes-the-taps-run-dry-in-venezuela
"The main job requirement for workers is loyalty to the leftist regime." Oil. Electricity. Water. Military. Medicine. Education. Manufacturing. Distribution. Law and order. EVERY aspect of Chavismo in Venezuela requires fealty to the regime. Not knowledge or professionalism
