Private Rivers: Will Transnational Water Companies Swallow El Salvador’s Water Supply?
The office of SETA, El Salvador’s water workers union, sits like a mouse at the elephant’s feet. The union’s plain, two room office sits next door to the huge, block-long two story building which is the headquarters for El Salvador’s national water company, ANDA (National Water and Sewage Administration). Inside the SETA office, union reps equipped with an old computer and chairs with broken rollers are bracing for a fight against government attempts to privatize their industry. Representatives for SETA say losing the fight could mean the “extinction” of their union and limits on Salvadoran’s access to clean water.
boligiTropical El Salvador receives in rainfall three times what its 6 million inhabitants consume annually, but water is a delicate topic where less than 6 in 10 households have it piped in. Even in urban San Salvador, where potable water is more pervasive, service is unpredictable.
“We wake up at four o’clock in the morning to fill our containers,” says Azucena, who lives in San Martín, a San Salvador suburb. “If not, you have to wait three days until it comes again.” To demonstrate, she turns the knob to the only faucet in her two room home. Nothing comes out.
Sometimes water stops running for days, sending residents scrambling to bathe or relieve themselves at friends’ houses. Those who can afford $15-20 a month can buy drinking water from private companies that sell five gallon containers door-to-door out of large blue trucks. The cost is about 6 times the monthly ANDA bill and out of reach for most Salvadorans. About 70 percent of people with a job earn the minimum wage of $158 per month.
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