Chapala’s Simapa water and sewage service agency is under new management with the designation of Timoteo Aldana Perez as general director.
Aldana replaces Marcos Rene Godinez Paredon, who submitted his resignation on August 15. Aldana was selected from a roster of three candidates proposed for the job by a majority of the SIMAPA administrative council, apparently based on his superior knowledge and experience. A titled industrial engineer, he comes to the post after four years at the helm of SIMAPA’s Ajijic branch office.
The new water boss tells the Reporter that the greatest challenge he faces is dealing with the area’s diminishing water supply. Several of the municipality’s wells have already run dry and others are dropping drastically as drought conditions prevail. He is concerned that distribution capacity could fall into a crisis situation by next spring.His other major headache will be resolving the agency’s deep financial troubles, marked by the accumulation of a 20 million peso debt. He is already developing technical strategies to reduce staggering monthly electricity bills and administrative restructuring to cut personnel expenses and collect on scores of property owners and businesses that are delinquent on their service fee accounts.