“You can’t blame the Maduro government, but as for the United States, this Donald Trump is mean. He’s mean and he’s blocked a lot of things. We have to support each other and this U.S. blockade has to end.†— Yolimar Contreras
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The same done to Iraq (evils the Neoconservative government) they want puppet government everywhere in the whole world,so they can help themselves to free oil ( petrol) just like Iraq.
Sadness,,, what is going on because of one demon…
Transcript:
Yolimar Contreras lives in a poor barrio, on the hillsides of Caracas, with her husband and her young son, in this two-room cinderblock home.
She’s lived here for 7 years. They used to have running water. At least, fairly often. But not anymore.
Yolimar Contreras, Resident, Altos de Lidice
“We haven’t had water for 3-4 months, because we’re high up on the hillside.â€
It hasn’t stopped her from washing the floors, but now in order to get water, they have to carry it up. One 23-liter jug at a time. She’s not alone. Water is out across major portions of the neighborhood.
Yolimar Contreras
“All week long you see people carrying water by here. Saturdays and Sundays, in particular, when people are off from work.â€
Here’s the problem. The pump needed to push the water up the hill and into their home. Well, it’s broken. And U.S. sanctions are blocking the country from acquiring new pumps, motors, pipes and replacement parts.
In Venezuela, they call it the “blockadeâ€. That’s what it feels like.
According to many residents, the Venezuelan government is doing what it can to mitigate the situation. Twice a week, it sends a tanker of potable water to the neighborhood, down the hill from Yolimar’s home.
Some residents here say they’ve been without running water for a year and a half. They pour into the streets with their waste-high buckets, to wait their turn for their containers to be filled.
Betsy Franquis, Comuna Altos de Lidice
“There’s a pump that’s broken and they are working on fixing it. The vice minister came yesterday and she said they are working on it. You need to have three pumps and only two are working, so because of a lack of pressure the water isn’t getting here.â€
The residents say they’ve always had issues with water, but it’s never been this bad.
Across town, on the opposite end of Caracas, sections of Petare, the city’s largest poor barrio, are also facing the same reality.
Hundreds of thousands of homes are out of water. This is one of the pumping stations that should be pushing the water up to many of them. But it’s missing most of its pumps. There’s only enough water pressure to fill up the trucks outside.
Maria Marrugo, Municipal Councilwoman, Caucagüita
“Because of the international economic blockade the United States has imposed on Venezuela it’s been impossible to buy the pumps, because the Venezuelan government has tried to send the funds twice in order to acquire the pumps, since we don’t have them here, because of the blockade. And it has never worked, because they have blocked the companies and the countries that have been trying to help us.â€
President Donald Trump intensified sanctions on Venezuela in August 2017. According to Venezuela, the U.S. government has frozen $5.5 Billion U.S. dollars of Venezuelan funds in international accounts in at least 50 banks and financial institutions. Even if Venezuela could get the money abroad, the United States has threatened to sanction foreign companies for doing business with the country.
This is not an isolated reality. According to officials at the state water company Hidroven, as much as 15-20% of the country is facing water shortages due to U.S. sanctions. We’re talking about millions of Venezuelans without potable running water, because of the U.S. government.
Maria Flores is the Vice President of Operations at Hidrocapital, the Venezuelan state water company for the capital, Caracas.
Maria Flores, Hidrocapital
“With the blockade, we have had situations, where we have the pumps and the motors and they are about to ship and then comes the all-powerful hand of the United States and they block the money in the bank or sanction the company that is working with us, just for selling us this equipment. What they don’t see is that they are affecting people’s lives. It’s not Chavez. It’s not Maduro. It’s the Venezuelan people that are waiting to have access to water.â€
They have come up with short-term solutions to the long-term problems. They have installed cisterns for homes in many communities that have been without water for longer, like this neighborhood in Petare. See those plastic blue tanks? Here, the water trucks can fill up the water tanks of each home directly, even when they are without running water.
But the blockade, and the lack of parts for vehicles is also impacting the number of water trucks Hidrocapital can keep on the road. Maria Flores says their fleet has been reduced by 75% over the last three years.
Maria Flores, Hidrocapital
“We had a fleet of 20 water trucks a few years ago. Now we have 4 or 5. It has all been reduced, because of the blockade.â€
Most nights of the week, Maria Flores and her team are holding meetings with communities across the city, trying to resolve the lack of access to water for low-income communities, which are facing the most severe shortages. Many of these meetings are not easy. Residents are upset. Water is not something you can do without.
But Maria Flores and her team know the importance of their relationship with the community. Water working groups in poor neighborhoods around the country were key in helping the government to bring direct access to potable water to 96% of the country’s homes, up from 80% twenty years ago, before president Hugo Chavez was elected.
But they are fighting an uphill battle. Hidroven says that most water storage facilities around the country are working at 50-60% capacity. Over the last three years, the influx of water into Caracas has been reduced by nearly 30%, because of failing pipes and pumps, and the inability to maintain the system, because they need equipment from abroad. Equipment they just can’t get, because of the Trump-imposed U.S. sanctions.
And this is the clear goal of the U.S. government. To tighten the grip and make the Venezuelan people suffer, with the hope that they will get fed up and rise up. The Trump administration would have you believe that the blame lies on Venezuelan incompetence, but many Venezuelans are just not buying it.
Yolimar Contreras
“You can’t blame the Maduro government, but as for the United States, this Donald Trump is mean. He’s mean and he’s blocked a lot of things. We have to support each other and this U.S. blockade has to end.â€
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.
It bothers me that they rarely mention that Obama leveled sanctions against Venezuela in 2015. He declared them a threat to national security. Trump has just continued and tightened the sanctions.
This should show every country that relies on the u.s for spare parts, or whatever, that’s integral to their economy to start building their own industries
Stop invading the USA and everything will get better!
Heartbreaking … The worse part is knowing we could all just come together and help one another and not compete to the degree of hurting another being, the world would be a cool place. We could concentrate on things that really are a danger to life on earth. Like bacterial and viral illnesses or asteroid disaster protections systems.
Why can’t y’all make your own pumps?
I've got the feeling Donald Trump doesn't like poor brown people
Evil
Never let outsider determine your future .. stop fighting the proxy war …
Shame on the Trump authoritarian government, keeping water from people. Trump and his gang of thugs is a shame on the American people.
I showed this video to a Trump fan, she didnt get 10 seconds into before reciting the usual rhetoric about Maduro and socialism and it being Venezuela's own fault.
I have NEVER seen such willful ignorance and stupidity, especially from people who claim to be smarter and more educated than everyone else.
Underdeveloped 'Infrastructure' is the main reason for not having water – do they live on bottled water as their primary source?!? I don't think so and if so? That will only keep them behind and not to develop in place that critical need to distribute water but also to maintain that ability along with water treatment facilities… I bet they don't have flushing toilets, bathe in a bathtub or shower water that is hooked up to a water system at all in the majority of residential areas but I am sure they have a limited system for tourism and the regional government?
I have never been to Venezuela and only the people who live there and people who have visited know but thus far from what I see and what is commonly known for the lack of developed infrastructure in many areas of the world as we can clearly see it existing in Venezuela?
There is a good number of underdeveloped and developing countries for not having modern infrastructures… is it because these are poor nations or nations that don't have skilled engineers and labor force and the most important is 'technology!' ?!?… Absolutely!
At least to compare to India; whereas overestimated 500 million Indians practice 'outdoor defecation' and because of their cultural belief; that bathrooms or the idea of having a toilet are a 'no-no' within the home… this activity has caused serious health, environmental issues, and freshwater contamination bringing disease to fester… They have skilled engineers and a labor force that can place such infrastructure technology but what gets in the way is to change their people's mindset to accept it or to what it instead of the old age 'outhouses' that are not sanitary nor well maintained and many Indians go to the beaches, the forest, or the fields, etc. to relieve themselves or even to dump their human waste in those areas!
I do believe sanctions hurt people but question here is "they have money to buy s300 from russia but yet blame the empire that maduro can't buy them from russia, turkey, iran, or china.
Residents have you ever thought that ur gov. wants u out?
Trust your neighbors, ur family, dont trust your government! That includes the us government!
Why don't the Russians and Chinese send them water pumps and parts
This is not usa problems
In the capital, people have power on and off, . part of the city not only do not have power but also do not have water. And this situation has been present for quite a long time. That is one reason why people in Venezuela are demonstrating against Maduro. . And you are telling us that it is US fault and the 20 years of mismanagement of Venezuelan economy have nothing to do with a present situation ? So funny.
That's evil! But these satanists, underestimated the resiliency and determination of the human spirit.! This is the very definition of inhuman, has the world really come to this, wars everywhere! One big power struggle and the innocent are stuck in the middle. Stay strong and United Venezuela…
USA will do anything to get the control over their resources
You are right Sweetie. The DC Regime is to blame. As usual. And the whole WORLD knows it. Its ways are GETTING OLD!!
I wonder how many dead children Trump will be happy with I remember I think it was th first Bush did 500 thousand Iraqi children under 7 with sanctions I heard it was German ppl who broke that blockade.
🇺🇸USA REAL NEWS🇺🇸
Beautiful people. Solidarity !
America is despicable to do this to people. Starve them and control them! Where is Australia and New Zealand in all this???????????????
Maybe this is corporate power lining up Joe Biden to be the next president after all he'll make America moral again
Time for good people of the world to impose sanctions against USA thug empire: lets boycott all american brands we can all over latin america: say no to WallMart, Amazon, Hollywood, american cars. fast food (McDonalds, Dominos, KFC, Starbucks…), Hollywood, Disney,….and the whole rest you can .
Is this a joke?? They have been living in the "utopia" for 20 years! Why are these people living in what should be condemned properties?? Why does the entire country look dilapidated and ratty? Its almost like socialism never really worked there and it was all propaganda.