Israeli engineers arrive in Puerto Vallarta to fix its water infrastructure problems

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This Monday SEAPAL gave a tour with local media to show the state of the agency’s water infrastructure and the works it will carry out to solve the problem of water supply in Puerto Vallarta.

In total, SEAPAL engineers point out that 110 million pesos are being invested in 29 works to rehabilitate the agency’s network of wells and treatment plants, as well as pipes in the city.

The largest work is that of the Radial Well, located at the meeting point of the Ameca and Mascota rivers, which supplies 20% of the households in Vallarta along with other smaller wells. Here, drains are built to capture more water and flood the area in order to restore the supply and capture more water, which will start to happen in 2 weeks.

The problem has been that after the passage of Hurricane Nora, the well was damaged, but also 400 meters upriver, both bodies of water joined beforehand and no longer went down to the radial well.

Additionally, private screening companies have excavated riverbeds to extract material such as sand and gravel for construction, which deepens the river and stagnates the water, preventing it from flowing into wells.

Regarding this, SEAPAL has already called an inspection of the National Water Commission to investigate the permits and possible violations of these companies.

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Once the works on the radial well are completed, it will be able to expand its water intake to 250 liters per second, more than the 120 it captures today. Although in recent years it has reduced its capacity since in the year 2000 when it was inaugurated it could obtain up to 720 liters per second.

Another issue is the maintenance of the northern treatment plant, which requires more than 200 million pesos for its maintenance and if they are not obtained, it could fail and cause a more severe crisis.

Likewise, SEAPAL works in other wells destroyed by the hurricane, for example in the Cuale River, where water was also obtained. 70% of the water is obtained from deep wells that continue their function.

On the other hand, Salvador Llamas, head of SEAPAL, informed during the breakfast with the media about the arrival of a team of engineers from the Technological Institute of Israel, made up of Isaac Rosen, Ran Weisman, Meytal Shenzur, and Sandra Rosen, recognized specialists on water issues, who will conduct a study to solve the water problems in Puerto Vallarta.

Likewise, Salvador Llamas will simultaneously assume the General Coordination of the Cabinet of the Government of Puerto Vallarta, a task that he will carry out, as he specified, when leaving his assigned schedule as director of SEAPAL, to further help Mayor Luis Alberto Michel.

Source: vallartaenlinea.com

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