ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Something Stinks in Privatised Sewage Treatment Plant

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

María Cecilia Espinosa

SANTIAGO, May 23 2005 (IPS) - A sewage treatment plant that began to operate two years ago in the Chilean capital, touted as the most modern of its kind in Latin America, has become a source of foul odours and constant traffic of trucks hauling sewage through lower-income neighbourhoods.

Local residents of nine municipalities in Santiago held a protest outside the French company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, which along with Spain’s Aguas de Barcelona holds a controlling stake in the Aguas Andinas firm, the owner of the La Farfana plant that was built after Chile’s sanitation services were privatised in 1999.

Alberto Muñoz, the head of the Multisocial and Intercommunal Coordinating Committee in Zona Poniente – the western portion of the city, which is home to 1.5 million of Greater Santiago’s nearly five million people – was in Paris that day, May 13, taking part in a demonstration outside the Suez Lyonnaise headquarters where a shareholders meeting was being held.

Just 45 days after La Farfana began to function in October 2003, the plant suffered the first breakdown of its biodigesters.

The next crisis occurred in October 2004, when the stench became so strong that the residents of the west side of Santiago began to kick up a fuss, complaining that not only did they have to live with the smell, but they had also seen their water bills soar by up to 200 percent.

Senator Nelson Avila of the co-governing Radical Social Democratic Party admitted to IPS that privatisation “has does nothing to improve the quality of the services, has significantly driven up the costs, and, worse still, the users themselves are being forced to foot the bill for the few investments that the company has made.”

Mayor Johnny Carrasco of Pudahuel, the district where the plant is located, and John Maulén, the head of the Association of Consumers and Users of Maipú, another of the affected municipalities, told IPS that lower-income areas have been discriminated against, suffering negligence when it comes to dealing with the present environmental crisis.

The odours that became unbearable in October 2004 were the result of a build-up of 30,000 tons of sewage, the immediate removal of which was demanded by the Environmental Health Service, which fined Aguas Andinas over 100,000 dollars.

The Environmental Health Service also cancelled the sewage treatment portion of consumer water bills, which meant a loss of around two million dollars a month for the company.

The steps taken by the French-Spanish-owned company to curb the emission of foul odours involved the adoption of a system aimed at accelerating the drying of the sludge and transferring it to a dump in the municipality of Tiltil, 80 km northwest of the capital.

The route, which runs through seven municipalities, was dubbed “la ruta de la caca” (“the poop route”).

On Oct. 25, 2004, one of the company’s trucks spilled sludge on a road, causing a car accident and angering President Ricardo Lagos, who ordered Spanish Ambassador Enrique Krauss to demand that the executives of Aguas de Barcelona come up with in-depth solutions to the problems, and that the company stop charging its users for water treatment services.

The privatisation of the Metropolitan Sanitary Works formed part of a plan to build 16 modern treatment plants to deal with the sewage generated by Greater Santiago.

La Farfana, the second plant to be built after El Trebal, is the fifth biggest in the world and processes an average of 8.8 cubic metres of water per second, which amounts to 50 percent of the sewage generated by some 3.3 million people. Construction of the plant cost 315 million dollars.

Aguas Andinas has put forth a plan to resolve the plant’s operational failures, and it intends to continue removing the sludge by truck.

Mauricio Ilabaca, the Health Ministry’s regional secretary, told IPS that La Farfana had complied with the environmental impact studies and the city’s statutes.

“What happened was a defect in operations that no one expected to occur, and what is needed is drastic action by the sanitation company, which should be required to pay compensation and transfer the sludge, avoiding an impact on the health of local residents,” he said.

Ilabaca denied that the authorities had acted in a discriminatory manner in the current case, arguing that sewage treatment plants are normally located downriver, which in this case means the western part of the city.

“One of the fundamental aims of this government is tackling inequalities. We must take efficient, timely action when it comes to situations in which the lowest income sectors face health risks, because they are the most vulnerable,” said the official.

Maulén, who led the May 13 protest, complained that no real solutions have been presented for the environmental problems involving La Farfana. He pointed out that local residents merely have 60 days to lodge their complaints, as part of a new environmental impact assessment by the company.

“We don’t know if our opinions will be taken into account, because this is a technical and political issue, and the pressure that Aguas Andinas has brought to bear on the government and the media is not insignificant,” said the community leader.

The plant “had technical difficulties due to a deeper underlying problem. They promised that there would be no odours and that the sewage would all be treated in La Farfana, so it is unacceptable for them to now say they will continue transferring the sludge by truck, which was supposed to be merely an emergency measure,” said Maulén.

But “The state also shares part of the responsibility, since it holds a 35 percent stake in the sewage company,” he added.

Maulén also said the government accepted a solar sewage sludge drying system which is not suitable to Santiago’s winter climate, as well as “inappropriate” anaerobic biodigesters.

The activist wondered if the authorities would have reacted this slowly if the complaints had come from residents of the city’s wealthier districts.

“In La Dehesa (a rich municipality) there is a small sewage treatment plant that is completely covered and that does not emit any foul odours,” said Maulén.

For the first time, Aguas Andinas expressed a willingness to sit down and hold a dialogue with the civil society organisations and the state, brokered by the University of Chile.

The Intercommunal Coordinating Committee will also present its technical observations to the government and will continue to work on raising awareness in the community and drawing attention to the issue in the press.

The municipality of Pudahuel is not only home to La Farfana but is also crossed by the Mapocho River, into which 11 municipalities dump 25 percent of their sewage.

Mayor Carrasco, who has spearheaded the complaints to the centre-left Lagos administration, told IPS that “there have been a few attempts to patch up the problem, but no real solutions.”

The local residents are demanding “that the company invest in sewage sludge drying systems that use more expensive technologies,” he said. “Hauling the sludge by truck merely drags the problem about, from one place to another.”

“Due to the technical difficulties, La Farfana has turned out to be a failure, and the government institutions that approved the project should be held accountable,” said the mayor.

“The poorest sectors always carry the burden for everyone else’s comfort. Some point to technical factors, but we at least deserve compensation, and for things to start working properly, rather than having to foot the cost of improvements for those who are so much better off than we are,” he argued.

Carrasco acknowledged that Lagos had attempted to take a hand in the matter. But he added that the president’s “willingness must be accompanied by policies and firm decisions aimed at coming up with real solutions.”

The company “must invest whatever is necessary to respect the quality of life of people who have been complaining about this for two years. The truth is that we’re tired of this whole business,” added the mayor.