by Rod Hughes

Showing just how vulnerable the country’s water system is, for the third time in a week nearly half million residents of the Central Valley were without water. The latest shutdown of the Water and Sewer Institutue’s (A y A) mains is blamed on an earth movement and A y A syys that water may not be on until tomorrow.

Sunday, the water was shut down for routine maintenance at the Orosi reservoir. At least that one afforded residents warning. Then Thursday morning, a ham-handed backhoe driver nicked the main conduit at Pitaya, causing an emergency shutdown. Today, engineers discovered other damage and the water was shut off again, in some places like Desamparados without ever having been turned on.

“In some sectors such as Coronado and Desamparados…there’s no water at all so we’re sending tank trucks to them,” said an A y A spokesman. In others, water was turned on for several hours before being shut off again. (As this is written at midday Friday, no tank trucks have been sighted in the San Miguel section of Desamparados where not a drop has moved through the mains since about 8 a.m. Thursday.)