The inhabitants of the municipality of Cunchibamba in central Ecuador are desperate due to the lack of drinking water, having been without it for four months now. On Friday they blocked the Ambato – Quito road for some 5 hours.
On 12 November, citizens held a meeting in the community centre, attended by several councillors and a provincial deputy. Although invited, no representative of the mayor’s office or the water company Emapa showed up for the meeting. The president of Cunchibamba’s municipal government, Gabriela Telenchana, supported the citizens’ initiative to protest for drinking water. She said:
We are known as a people of solidarity, as friendly people, but we get angry when they don’t listen to us.
She also said that in almost two years of municipal administration, the community had not benefit any single public work, and described it as inhumane that they were still without water, despite having two wells in their jurisdiction.
Giovanni Lasluisa, a resident of Cunchibamba, said that he has not had a drop of water for three months and that he depends on his nephew to bring him water from Salcedo. He said he paid five dollars three months ago, nine dollars two months ago and 12 dollars this month:
What are they charging us for, it’s an injustice that we live with in the whole community, with this money I could buy two bottles of water.
Soraya Salas, also a resident of Cunchibamba, insisted that immediate solutions must be sought, as desperation is leading people to wash their clothes with irrigation water, which is already causing skin problems in children:
They are ready to be re-elected and that should not be the case, they should not play with people’s feelings.
