After a new problem with ETA II equipment, water supply is once again reduced in Rio Branco | Acre

After a new problem with equipment at the Water Treatment Station (ETA II), the water supply has been reduced again in Rio Branco since Wednesday night (1st). According to the Water Supply and Sewage Service (Saerb), a HDPE pipe from one of the intake pumps suffered damage and ETA II had to be shut down at 9pm.

To the g1, the CEO of Saerb, Enoque Pereira said that the problem affected the region of the Second District, Calafate, Estação Experimental and even the residential AlphaVille. ETA II is responsible for covering 60% of the capital’s neighborhoods.

“The HDPE has been repaired and we are already starting the treatment at ETA. I believe it will be back to normal by tomorrow,” he said, contradicting the agency’s note, which predicted the reestablishment of the system by 5pm on Thursday.

Electrical failure in lifting unit prevents water distribution to 50 neighborhoods

Although Saerb discloses the problem as a one-off situation, this is yet another case of a reduction in water intake due to technical problems at ETA II in recent months. Resident of Rua Canamaris, in the Chico Mendes neighborhood, in the upper part of Rio Branco, commercial representative Jorge Luiz states that since March, water distribution has been occurring with many interruptions in the region.

According to the resident, the water has arrived every three days, and with low intensity. As a result, he and several other residents have difficulty completing their household chores.

“Tuesday (29) arrived, it arrives between 7am, when it’s 9:15am, 9:30am, it’s over. There’s two hours of water in the morning, and it’s very weak. The water barely leaves the canal, it barely fills the tanks, the water is already gone. There’s no water for anything else. They say they come every other day. But it comes every three days. Came on Tuesday, will only come tomorrow [sexta, dia 3], it didn’t come yesterday or today. If it’s every two days, it would have to come today, and it comes very weakly. There is a house that has a well. Here at home, as there is no space to build a well, it gets complicated”, she reports.

According to Jorge Luiz, he cannot contact the telephone numbers published by Saerb.

“There’s no way to even wash the area, we have animals, dogs, cats, and we don’t have any to wash the yard, either. You have to get some water, use the water from the tank with a watering can and pour it little by little. There’s not enough water. The number to call, which appears on the water ticket, 0800, does not exist. There’s another number, you call, but there’s no answer”, he complains.

In March, due to the flooding of the Acre River, water distribution was also reduced and even suspended because stations I and II had problems. According to Saerb, the teams managed to complete the maintenance that month.

The coordinator highlighted that there was a very rapid flow in the level of the Acre River. In less than a month, the waters dropped from 17.89 meters, the highest level recorded this year, to 4.48 meters this Tuesday. The river dropped more than 13 meters during this period.

“With this, it obviously dragged the soil here. On the same date last year, the river was over 17 meters high. It shows that we need to look for viable solutions to be able to supply water to Rio Branco”, he argued.

The forecast was that the service would be normalized by this Tuesday (30), however, from Wednesday onwards, there was a new interruption.

“There was a fire that hit two panels, we had to shut down the entire system and it also damaged Energisa’s network. [Equipes] They went there at dawn, did the part [de manutenção], but I needed to change this equipment. We had spare equipment, but it’s not easy to change, there’s a fuse that doesn’t exist here, we saw it in Porto Velho and we’re trying to relocate it now”, explained the CEO of Saerb, Enoque Pereira.

Later that year, the agency reported that the land on which ETA II is located shows soil movement and that alternatives were already being studied so that problems like this would not happen again.

At the beginning of the month, Mayor Tião Bocalom (PL) signed an emergency decree due to erosion caused by the sudden drop in the level of the Acre River, following this year’s flood. The collapse threatens the Water Treatment Plant (ETA II) and, consequently, the supply of the capital of Acre.

The decree lasting 180 days should, according to Bocalom, facilitate the purchase of inputs to restore the treatment plant without having to go through normal bidding processes. “It makes it easier for us to buy parts, buy machines, buy engines so we can respond quickly,” he said.