Residents of the upper Ajijic neighborhood of Las Salvias are finally getting solutions to the prolonged glitches in their water supply service.
Some homes have not received a drop of pumped water from the municipal utility (Simapa) since March. Householders have complained about ambiguous explanations given by Simapa personnel and the poor quality of water the agency delivers by pipa mobile tankers. Many have relied on costly private tanker services to refill their cisterns.
Reductions in the water supply throughout the Chapala municipality were supposed to end once demand decreased at the start of the rainy season. That was not the case in Las Salvias.
Ajijic Simapa manager Rafael Escamilla told the Guadalajara Reporter that the problems in Las Salvias stem primarily from obsolete infrastructure and damaged equipment. A badly corroded underground valve has been replaced to help restore normal flow to homes. A month-old pump feeding the area recently shorted out. As it was under warranty, a substitute was acquired and installed last week. Most recently, there was a breakdown of one of the wells that distributes water to upper Ajijic.
In addition, Escamilla says that his workers suspect that someone in the vicinity may be tapping water through a clandestine connection, draining supplies from the 5,000-liter holding tank located near the intersection of El Tempisque and Angel Flores that feeds homes to the west. So far, they have not detected the location of a surreptitious tap.
Meanwhile, Simapa’s crew is resolving issues with three Las Salvias homes that still do not get sufficient water input.