The Aguas Antofagasta company announced that the water cut that began on Sunday, which affects more than half of the population of that commune, will last at least until Friday, December 8.
«In the best scenario, we could be replenishing the supply starting Friday morningand at noon or later, a large part of the population that is without water today would have a supply,» explained the company’s operations manager, Cristian Jimenez.
Until now, around 66 thousand homes do not have the resource due to an electrical failure in the northern desalination plant sector, which is why 90 distribution points of drinking water.
Hours before, the electrical company ENGIE issued a statement indicating that, according to the first investigation of the failure, «it would consist of damage caused to the underground line that feeds the plantoccurred during work carried out by a backhoe», which «were not carried out by ENGIE, nor by its contractors».
The operations manager of Aguas Antofagasta, Cristian Jiménez, referred to the emergency and confirmed that the water replacement could – in the best of cases – begin during the early hours of Friday the 8th, depending on some factors. pic.twitter.com/VHBfqtRZUp
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Officials from both companies are looking for solutions: «It is a very complex work that requires resources, personnel and supplies that are not found today in the region, and that he will be here first thing tomorrow morning», and they are on their way from the regions of Coquimbo and Metropolitana, Jiménez added.
This Tuesday «we should also communicate the effective duration of these works,» he added.
On the other hand, after the Senapred will decree a yellow alert in the communethe presidential delegate of Antofagasta, Karen Behrens, announced that it was decided suspend classes indefinitely in all schools of the regional capital, until that measure is lifted.
Meanwhile, essential services – Carabineros, Firefighters, healthcare centers – will be supplied on a preferential basis.