Chiriqui begs for water

PANAMA. While Panama city and other areas battle with flood waters, Chiriqui struggles to maintain drinking water rights over the demand to create and export electricity.

The fight continued this week as IDAAN’s provisional director in Chriqui, Guillermo Ardila, tried to negotiate a deal with a hydroelectric company to ensure sufficient water is available to satisfy the city of David’s needs in the summer.

For the past two years David has suffered severe water shortages between November and May compounding difficulties that persist year round due to IDAAN’s out-of-date and inadequate water supply infrastructure.

Ardila told the Panama Star that he was asking the hydro-electric company, Saltos de Francoli, to consider allowing IDAAN to extract one cubic meter of the water for every fourteen cubic meters that will flow through their turbines generating electricity to be sold abroad.

According to the terms of the concession contract between ANAM and Saltos de Francoli, the company has permanent rights to a volume of 292,075,200 cubic metres per year, for which they pay annually $3,095.99 to ANAM.

While local residents recognized IDAAN’s perspicacity in planning ahead, they were critical of the terms of the contract.

“Why does IDAAN have to go begging to a private hydroelectric company to give us a little bit of drinking water for our everyday needs.

Why should we Panamanians be dependent on the good will of outside interests who can choose whether they want to negotiate or not,” said Yariza Espinosa from the COLIBRI environmentalist organization.

“The hydroelectrics are going to make millions of dollars for a few individuals but will generate poverty in the local communities. This is the result of irresponsibility and bad planning.”

She was critical of the number of contracts already approved by ANAM and said that the over-saturation of hydroelectric plants implementing cheap, outdated technology to generate electricity by diverting the course of rivers would lead to environmental devastation and social problems.

Ninety concessions for hydroelectric projects have been granted in Chiriqui, of which 40 have been approved and 14 are already under construction.

She questioned why the government is focusing only on hydroelectric power to meet 80 per cent of the country’s energy needs and suggested that geothermal plants, solar energy in the desert of Veraguas and wind power would be less devastating to the environment and would mean that sufficient water could continue to flow in Chiriqui’s rivers to preserve the ecological integrity of the freshwater system.