Economy

Daily challenge for Venezuelans: obtain water, power, cooking fuel

The authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro has plunged Venezuela into a severe economic, political and humanitarian crisis.

A man on a motorcycle carries a water drum at La Vega neighborhood in Caracas. Chronic failures of public services in Venezuela cause a de facto, informal and chaotic 'privatization,' with the population forced to cover with its own resources the vacuum left by the ineffectiveness of state networks. [Federico Parra/AFP]
A man on a motorcycle carries a water drum at La Vega neighborhood in Caracas. Chronic failures of public services in Venezuela cause a de facto, informal and chaotic 'privatization,' with the population forced to cover with its own resources the vacuum left by the ineffectiveness of state networks. [Federico Parra/AFP]

AFP |

CARACAS -- Yusmary spends as much as half her weekly wage for water. Isora must go to the black market to get gas cylinders so she can cook. Rodrigo, weary of blackouts, bought portable generators for his home and business.

Public utilities offer erratic service in Venezuela, and citizens pay steeply to make up for the shortcomings.

When power shuts off and water and gas supplies run dry, people hustle around chaotic private networks to find supplies.

"People have to resolve and go about their daily lives," Jesus Vasquez, director of Monitor Ciudad, an NGO that tracks water, electricity, and gas in Caracas and four states in this country of 30 million inhabitants, told AFP.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a meeting in Caracas. The authoritarian regime of Maduro has plunged Venezuela into a severe economic, political and humanitarian crisis. [Federico Parra/AFP]
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a meeting in Caracas. The authoritarian regime of Maduro has plunged Venezuela into a severe economic, political and humanitarian crisis. [Federico Parra/AFP]
Yusmary Gomez, 36, holds a hose to collect water in plastic containers because of a water shortage, at her home in La Vega neighborhood in Caracas. Gomez has come to spend half the money she earns a week on water. Chronic failures of public services in Venezuela cause a de facto, informal, and chaotic 'privatization,' with the population forced to cover with its own resources the vacuum left by the ineffectiveness of state networks. [Federico Parra/AFP]
Yusmary Gomez, 36, holds a hose to collect water in plastic containers because of a water shortage, at her home in La Vega neighborhood in Caracas. Gomez has come to spend half the money she earns a week on water. Chronic failures of public services in Venezuela cause a de facto, informal, and chaotic 'privatization,' with the population forced to cover with its own resources the vacuum left by the ineffectiveness of state networks. [Federico Parra/AFP]

Protests over the situation are frequent.

The people of Venezuela are trapped under the authoritarianism and economic mismanagement of President Nicolás Maduro.

He has crushed all political opposition and depends on support from Russia, China and Iran to stay in power, but the Venezuelan people stay poor no matter how many deals those countries sign with Caracas.

The hiring of incompetent cronies of both Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez to manage the crucial state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela was a notable step in impoverishing the country.

Empty water pipes

A shout rings out in La Jota, part of the La Vega district of Caracas: "The water is back on!"

Everyone scurries to fill buckets and jugs to ensure family water supplies.

Yusmary Gomez, a 36-year-old mother, says it is not uncommon that water comes on only once every two weeks.

"Last year, we didn't get even a drop of water for three and a half months."

At her home, she has a plastic cistern that holds 800 liters given to her during an election campaign.

City water, when it arrives, is often yellowish, so she buys 20-liter jugs from the store where she works, for drinking and cooking.

Each payday, her boss deducts the cost. Filling two containers costs one dollar. "I get $30 a week and I've been paid $15," Gomez tells AFP.

Monitor Ciudad estimates that city residents on average receive water for 60 of the 168 hours in any given week.

For middle-class residents, it is common to pay $70 for a delivery from a tanker to fill private cisterns.

In more affluent areas, neighbors sometimes spend up to $20,000 to drill private wells and share the output.

The average salary in the country, according to private estimates, is $150 per month. The minimum monthly wage is less than $5.

Using a mobile app, communities can notify the government of Maduro, and in theory it deploys units to replenish water lines, pave roads or recondition schools.

Maduro blames US sanctions for the crisis in services, but the country is wracked by disinvestment and allegations of corruption.

Gas for medicine

Water is not the only scarce resource in La Jota.

Isora Bazan complains of erratic delivery of domestic natural-gas cylinders for cooking. To cope with the delays, she must turn to the black market.

"I stop buying medicine to go buy gas," the 61-year-old retiree told AFP.

On one avenue, dealers sell cylinders for between $10 and $20. Bazan receives a monthly pension of less than $5.

Only 17% of the population has piped gas, according to Monitor Ciudad.

Private generators

Felicinda Mendoza, 74, saw her refrigerator fail from frequent blackouts.

"The power goes out a lot... Yesterday I took out the meat, the chicken and the little bit of food I had. Everything was rotten," she said.

Blackouts are especially problematic in the provinces, where they can last for hours.

"If we don't find a way to solve these things, we will die of heart attacks," Rodrigo Crespo, a 35-year-old businessman, told AFP.

He bought two small generators, one for his home and one for his business in Los Puertos de Altagracia, a small town near Maracaibo in the west of the country. Each generator cost $350.

Running them costs $100 a month in fuel.

No water, no school

The collapse in the public health and educational systems also vexes Venezuelans.

The four-year-old daughter of Gomez often misses classes when her state-run preschool shuts its doors for lack of water.

"They send us a text message: There's no water so there's no school," she said.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, it has become commonplace for students in public schools to have classes only two or three days a week as teachers retire because of low salaries.

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