We’re now on week four or five of a relentless national debate about drinking water quality in Venezuela. Everybody, but everybody, has heard the stories about drinking water being unsafe not only in Monagas but throughout the Lago de Valencia watershed.
Now, ask yourself this:
- Can you describe what, specifically, is wrong with the water in the Center-West and in Monagas?
- Can you outline the known health effects of the specific toxic agents alleged to be in the water, in the concentrations actually found in drinking water in those areas?
- Can you explain why existing water treatment plants can’t remove the agents involved?
My guess is that the vast, vast majority of Venezuelan media consumers can’t answer those questions, and the reason is simple: the media has overwhelmingly chosen to cover the stupid political fight over reporting on water quality issues, rather than…reporting on water quality issues!
Perhaps it’s not so surprising: reporting on the idiot controversy over the government’s thuggish gagging attempts is within any Venezuelan political hack’s confort zone, whereas actual public health reporting is hard, technical, subject to qualifications and not something you can really wing if you don’t know what you’re talking about. And so we get reams and reams of coverage on the government’s attempts to stop us writing about water quality…and almost nothing specific, substantive and substantiated on water quality!
It would just take a smidgeon of originality, of reportorial daring, of plain old gumption and outside-the-box thinking to commission some lab reports on water quality in Valencia and build a story around the results, or to identify some people whose health has been affected and tell their stories, or to even just explain the known health effects of some of the toxins involved. Somehow, such reporting is vanishingly rare.
All kinds of props go to Edison Durán and his Movement for Water Quality, who’ve been doing the yeoman’s work on documenting what’s specifically wrong with water in the central region. It’s too bad the media love to write about writing about your work, but hate to write about your work.
Kudos for putting the finger on the sore.
I can speak from my position of journalist that the dumbing down of our news outlets, combined with the government pressure in all fronts against the so-called independent media has taken their toll in the way the issues are presented. Here’s the communicational hegemony at work.
I prefer to focus on the former: Regional media prefers to hire younger, unexperienced people as journalists because they will do what they’re told. They will follow the line drawn, no questions asked. In fact, some channels are putting the mandatory college interns as the journalists and openly identify them on air as such. The channels and radio stations don’t care because what matters to them is their customers: state governorships and municipalities, public entities, etc.
In the end, mediocrity wins. They could get that water sample, analyze it and report on it. But they won’t. Not only of the fear of spitting the hand that feeds them, because many of the people in front and behind the scenes have no idea of the current theme whatsoever. Too complicated. Better talk of celebrities and who got killed last weekend. Yes, they are that dumb. How I know that? Because I’ve seen it personally and I can tell you, it’s getting worse. Sad times.
About the communicationa hegemony, check this out:
http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120326/sebin-y-psuv-verificaron-linea-editorial-de-medios-privados
#NoEsFacilSerPeriodistaEnVenezuela
121 million to advertise the “successes and advances” of the government?! Am I correct that this is about the equivalent of a month’s wages at salario minimo for every single venezuelan on the planet?
#ReinaEl FacilismoPeriodísticoPorTodoElMundo.
#EsoEsCorrectoCompadre
#OjoLaComadre
#TamosJodidosEsLoQues
Quico, perhaps you missed the government statement that I read near the beginning of this whole water topic. I don’t have the link but I remember being surprised none of the blogs commented. The statement went something like: the media can talk about the water, but it is the responsibility of the media to be very certain what they say.
I took it to mean two things. The obvious one, a threat if you get any facts wrong. The subtle one, the certainty had to be not only in the statement of fact, but in the accepting of social reaction to it. In other words, if your statement can cause panic, then you are causing panic, and that is punishible by law, regardless of the facts about the water…
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Noam Chomsky, eat your heart out…
Thank you. I had been wanting to comment for awhile now about the lack of any hard information about water quality. What is so hard about this? For about $200, you have have just about any lab to tests for mineral content, organics, and VOCs. But, what do we get? Bupkus!
Here’s are some baby steps for a more in-depth story, without having to go the distance of obtaining lab reports. Naturally, the politics of the municipality will require jumping a few small hurdles to achieve similar ends.
1. Locate hydrologists and an eco specialists who have reported on these contaminated water sources. P.S. Google can help in a pinch.
2. Call them and arrange an interview on site.
3. Contact the municipality to request voluntary interviews with x # of inhabitants, in their homes or places of business.
4. Prepare to tape, on site and in peoples’ homes/businesses.
5. Tape and edit.
6. Write and post.
Any questions?
For several days now, Globovision has been airing short videos on water quality problems of all kinds They may not all be hard data nor are they based on independent laboratory testing but they’re not hearsay either since they are based on extracts from the highest official source: Memoria y cuenta del Ministerio de Ambiente 2011
The entire (160+ pp) report is in the documents section on the Globo site.
http://globovision.com/news.php?nid=223303
Great video, some of it from Miguel Peña parish. That must have made Kepler’s day.
Venezuelans should know: it’s not that hard. It just takes a little bit of effort and money. See this
http://www.plataformaurbana.cl/archive/2012/03/26/nueva-planta-de-tratamiento-deja-a-santiago-con-el-100-de-las-aguas-servidas-saneadas/
Thanks, JC!
Un millardito? Imagine if Chávez hadn’t spent so many billions buying weapons but had invested them in the water and electricity systems of Venezuela.
It would still be graft, and would still be regressive. I agree that it would have been a lesser evil, but an evil still.
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Thanks for this post, Gustavo.
El Movimiento por la Calidad del Agua is indeed carrying out a good work.
Juan,
I am happy they talk about Miguel Peña. Now, just in case: all that vegetation you see there can be deceptive, there are lots of people living there. What he shows is the Southernmost part of that parish. A little bit to the North slums appear and and they don’t stop until you are about 1 km to the South of Bolívar Square. There are over 210,000 voters in that parish alone, about half a million people living in 220 km2.
In a territory of less than 15×14 km about 50 people are murdered every month…a murder rate of over 120 x 100 000.
In 2010 PSUV won by 0.2% only…in the poorest area of Valencia. If we just spent more time there.
And in 2010 we still didn’t have enough witnesses in that, the most populated parish of Carabobo.
And a little bit of perspective here on my gerrymandering map:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rZbKKDohSyc/S1l6dg1ZMVI/AAAAAAAABEY/PdtaEIEl65c/s1600-h/Estadodocaraboboposto.jpg
The parish is the one where you can read the first letter of Valencia.
Quico wrote this post, not me. Thanks anyway.
I noticed that the video was titled “Radar de los Barrios por Globovision.” About six months ago the Radar de los Barrios blog went offline, most likely due to Chavista pressure. Has Radar de los Barrios been resurrected in some form
Good question I miss Radar too! Was great window into what the poor in Venezuela have to endure regardless of what Chavez sez. Im not sure but I think they are on facebook and twiter under another name.
Apparently since September 2011 there were studies that proved that the water in Valencia does not meet international drinking water standards. http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120326/indican-que-agua-que-se-distribuye-en-valencia-contiene-elementos-toxi .
Why do people making the denounces about water pollution haven’t cited this study? And know is just only a small news in the Universal website that a study from one of the most important Public Universities in the Country proves that the water in the third largest city is not drinkable. Sigh
There have been other studies. And it is not just bacteria. In some cases, the water company pours chlorine galore, but at levels that are not permitted. Because there are also other kinds of chemicals, people end up getting high levels of trihalomethanes
The question is why arent these studies in front page news to contradict the government position that its all a lie last year?
Don’t ask me.
First you start to see things like this:
http://scielo.isciii.es/pdf/gs/v17n2/original6.pdf
then it went worse. I saw an article of 2010
Look at the girl in this blog:
http://www.sarcoliracarlos.blogspot.com/
That’s the same who is in that video above.
In El Carabobeno (reprinted in Argentina)
http://intra.ada.gba.gov.ar/intra/infoagua/200912/noticias/312305.html
Aprovechando el asueto de Semana Santa vamos a retransmitir trabajos que sobre el tema de la calidad del agua en la cuenca del lago de Valencia hemos hecho desde el año 2009, planteando la perspectiva de usuarios, trabajadores y otros afectados, con el soporte de los testimonios y documentos aportados por especialistas, expertos y activistas ambientalistas.
Nos parece interesante el enfoque del comentario que haces. Por nuestra parte, realizamos un sincero esfuerzo por no “escribir acerca de lo que escribimos” ni “hablar acerca de lo que hablamos”. El Radar se empeña en ser megáfono y plataforma para comunidades a las que generalmente no les es sencillo hacerse escuchar, sobre todo en temas como la calidad del agua cuya importancia, aunque obvia, no era evidente para los actores políticos (incluido el gobierno) hace tres años, cuando empezamos a trabajarlo de manera sistemática.
Estamos conscientes de que es la coyuntura electoral la que hace a este tema inusitadamente “sexy” para ciertos medios y no pocos políticos, y lo que de paso determina un abordaje superficial y poco consistente del mismo. Pero es nuestra responsabilidad como activistas sociales y como comunidadores populares aprovechar cuyunturas como esta para que estos temas y estas comunidades ganen visibilidad y espacio. Si algunos “líderes” y medios se aproximan a estos asuntos y a estos actores sociales por oportunismo, nosotros aprovechamos esa fugaz vecindad por tener sentido de oportunidad, que puede parecerse, pero que no es lo mismo.
Y lo hacemos con una tranquilidad en el alma: La certeza de que -como esta ya probado- el Radar pelea estas causas antes, durante y después de las elecciones.
Un abrazo,
Chuo
Just want to point out that in Ecuador and in Bolivia the anti-environmental policies (la minería) of the current governments have been a legitimate claim for the opposition (especially for “new” opposition groups that used to be allied with Evo and Correa) but at as in Venezuela the issue is extremely politicized. I guess a good thing is that at least we are starting to talk about the environment. The bad thing is that we are not seeing the problem from the right angle, only from the electoral juncture perspective. Hopefully this issue will stick in the future and we’ll be able to talk about it.
I wonder if we Venezuelans can talk about ANY policy issue without reducing it to the political struggle we are going through. “The water is clean –> the revolutionary government is right” vs. “the water is dirty –> it’s the government’s fault –> vote Capriles, don’t vote for charisma”. That´s as far as we can go. I wonder if it will stop when the election is over. When will chavismo vs. antichavismo stop defining EVERY policy issue, every political party agenda? As “exciting” and interesting as our current situation is, I can’t wait for real politics to begin in our country.
I actually meant “chavismo” not “charisma”. I blame the autocorrect thingy of my computer.
your computer was not so way off. chavismo = charisma rules substance
Lol. I know. A sort of Computer Freudian slip.
There was a good article on the problem in Sunday’s El Universal, which includes instances instances in which “proof” was provided to the relevant authorities. The article names which planst and some of the problems:
http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120325/agua-el-gobierno-si-sabe
Miguel I read this article.
I am a Limnologist by training and I have noticed how hard is for people to understand what is going on. There are several problems
1.Lack of treatment plants for the water entering Lago de Valencia. This lake has been eutropic (high concentration of phosphorus and nitrogen) since my days in the UCV. The uncontrol human growth and the input of sewage water has increase enoumously en the las 20 years….which bring us to problem number two
2. The water used for the population of this area original were not dumped in Lago Valencia…but when somebody make the decision of using the lake as the reservoir of the sewage water…the water level of the lake start increasing instead of decreasing as happened during last century due to increase in sediments and loss of inputs form some rivers….this bring us to problem number three
3. They decide to increase the volume of water diverted to the Pao Cachinche, which is not treated….this bring us to problem number four
4. Water with a high concentration of nutrients needs a higher concentration of Cl to be treated. This also increase the concentration of Chlorination by products that can be toxic for humans.
So Quico you could make a diagram about this vicious problem that is product of unregulated human growth and complete ignorance of the government how to solve the problem
Here’s an idea, María. Would you, as a trained limnologist, write the article and create the drawing — given your training and knowledge base of the problem — for submission to Quico who would then provide you with a guest posting opportunity?
It is not so simple as getting a report from a lab and publishing it. The lab would probably lose its “certification” from Ministerio of Ambiente” to start. Employees from Water Works (most runned by Government agencies) that leak any internal information, may be fired without contemplation.
Organic wise, Bacteria are not the only problems, there are probably several other “microorganism” as well.
Here is the Blog from the NGO “Movimiento por la Calidad del Agua”:
http://movimientoporlacalidaddelagua.blogspot.com/
To give a hint of what could happen, see this episode that happened with contaminated water in a first world country im 1993:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/water/factsheet/com/cryptosporidium.html
In the “MInisterio del Ambiente” there are people that did their theses work in Lago Valencia in the 70″s. They know the history of the Lake, but probably they have to be careful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_Tragedy
Seven deaths due to water pollution in Ontario, Canada in the year 2000.
Very good point sir. The Walkerton (Canada) tragedy’s killer source was a strain of e-coli bacteria (i.e. from cow shit that got into the water supply through runoff), combined with incompetent water-testing by the local authorities. As Jeffry says, seven deaths were the result, not to mention significant other illness and injury, and economic damage to an entire community. From cow shit. Full details came out in a lengthy judicial inquiry.
So it was striking -to say the least- to see the cows grazing near the water supply in the video posted with this story. Thanks for the reminder Jeffry House.
Another similar link:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/20071222043110/http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/01vol27/dr2722ea.html
An estimated 400.000 persons suffered the consequences and an estimated 100 may have died .. There was a Discovery Channel documentary about this case …
I am talking about the Minnesota case, imagine what could happen in Venezuela..
Hey! Two posts in a row pointing me to the sources I’d already linked to in the main post!
Notice, though, how not even these guys give an answer to question #2…
Ooops sorry for the duplicate link … I had a boss that used to say that you cannot give somebody too much information …
A simple test, possibly even more effective than a lab study, could be a video showing someone spritzing faucet water on half of a jello, or half of a cheese stick then watching what grows after a few days. For the inorganic stuff, you may not get to view of some of the invisible stuff, but you could definitely hose some water through a white cloth to show what’s left on the cloth after a couple of minutes.
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Globovision has an article on the issue:
http://www.globovision.com/news.php?nid=223785
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Before I went to Venezuela I had been to a lot of other third world countries so I stuck to not trusting the water. I noticed that most Venezuelans drank a lot of Polar and Coffee so I did too. Never got sick once!
If Chavez expropriates Polar, then it might be best to drink only coffee. Who knows what extra ingredients will be growing in the beer.
Don’t shower after a blackout might be another practical tip tourists can take from this video.
It can be difficult during a blackout too. Scary.
Any Venezuelan learned at school that Valencia Lake is polluted. No proof needed. ✓
If you mix clean water and dirty water you end up with dirty water. Therefore, transfusing water from Valencia Lake to Pao Cachinche dam equals pollution of a water supply. ✓
Everyone has watched pictures of the Guarapiche river with oil flowing along its course. A picture is worth a thousand words. ✓
Some people think the Chavez government is doing badly. Globovision puts their two cents. ✓
Other people see the president’s image at stake so they go to his rescue. Izarra goes to work. ✓
Governor Briceño rises up against PSUV. He gets expelled so he’s validated. ✓
This is the level of discussion of the water crisis in Venezuela, in spite of the efforts to do a scientific method of inquiry. In terms of truths and beliefs, ancient Venezuelan attitudes are still alive and well.
Maduro insistió en que “ellos tienen un plan de emboscadas políticas, mediáticas, para tratar de escalar en situaciones diversas de violencia” y destacó como ejemplos agresiones a periodistas de medios estatales o las denuncias sobre el mal estado del agua en el país hechas recientemente por algunos dirigentes opositores.
“Si ellos se atrevieran otra vez a arremeter para tratar de emboscar la vida en paz de los venezolanos, nosotros, el Gobierno bolivariano y todas las instituciones del Estado tendrían que reaccionar con mucha claridad y mucha fortaleza”, destacó el canciller
Fire Maduro!! Of course, Chavez will not-because Maduro imitates Chavez…
Tragic situation. Here are a couple of links of two water authorities for comparison:
(I recognize two different countries, regions etc., etc., but alas one needs to start somewhere)
http://www.hidrocentro.gob.ve/hc/
The Water Authority charged with oversight of Water resources for Aragua, Carabobo and Cojedes.
and
http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/
The Water Authority charged with oversight of water resources for Metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
The MWRA certainly has its critics and share of politics, but perhaps one might want to focus on the following keywords: Honesty, Transparency and Accountability as a starting point as one examines each web site.
Have you examined your Water resource authority today?
No me jurungues esa cortada que me duele pana! As a journalist myself, I’ve had to deal with some quite painful examples of disposable journalism… Several points here. As some other colleagues who read this thread will attest, sometimes doing your work properly for regional outlets is difficult. In my early formational years, I had the opportunity to work for a “reputed” Western Venezuela media outlet that shall remain nameless, and let me tell you, each and every time we in the Caracas office wrote something that even remotely could be construed -by a Schizophrenic on speed- as possibly affecting the owners’ interests, we got heavily edited.
You have to remember that most media outlets in Venezuela are privately owned by persons or families that have other main interests in their respective regions or nationwide, such as hotels, farms, etc. and have their radios or newspapers as a means to gain more respectability. I do not know if this is still the case, but I remember my Guariqueño dad telling me that the Lago de Valencia was the collector of residual waters of all the Cochineras in the vicinity, from which we get those delicious chicharrones and pernil sandwiches in La Encrucijada and El Rey de los Chicharrones de Aragua (Damn, culinary nostalgia fit…).
So what happened when and if (Even a long, long time ago before the current administration) a journalist in the region started fussing with water quality on the radio? The radio station owner’s friends with cochineras in the region would give their Compadre a friendly call and tell him “dile a ese reporterillo tuyo que deje la pendejada, que me vas a meter en un problema, guevón” before the authorities could get involved and force them to spend actual money on water treatment plants or drainage systems.
That is regrettably the way for a big part of the Venezuelan private sector, or do you think we ended up with the current government because of bad luck? Corruption and amiguismo are nothing new or recent in Mi País Para Querer.
It is easier and safer for everyone to cover the stupid political argument around water quality, because then it remains a “he said-she said” argument where no one is right or wrong. You do the actual work and you might get a reprimand. And now that I live abroad, I can tell you it is not a situation exclusive to Venezuela.