Local residents in Venezuela staged further protests on Monday as the failed socialist country now appears to be running out of clean water. Multiple groups of demonstrators blocked highways around the capital of Caracas to protest the lack of clean water supplies.
On the Avenida Baralt in central Caracas, protesters complained that they had not received water for two days and, as a result, were forced to use stagnant water, exposing them to infectious diseases.
“At 7:05 am we are in Santa Teresa area of Glorieta protesting for water. #CaracasWantsWater,” wrote local councilor Jesús Armas on Twitter. “The residents of Santa Teresa are raising their voice and exercising their rights, the only way to pressure @HIDROCAPITALca to do their jobs is to activate as citizens.”
#Ahora 7:05am estamos en Santa Teresa esquina de Glorieta protestando por agua. #CaracasQuiereAgua pic.twitter.com/acef7E2xm0
— Jesús Armas (@jesusarmasccs) July 2, 2018
Elsewhere in Caracas, locals blocked a highway outside the Concresa shopping mall in the Baruta neighborhood to protest the lack of water, as well as the recently elevated price of public transport. A recent report by the Venezuelan National Federation of Communal Councils and Communes found that 90 percent of ground transportation in the country is broken or out of service.
“Protest over the lack of transport and its increased fares in front of Concresa,” wrote Baruta councilor Héctor Urgelles. “Neighbors of Santa Cruz del Este and Terrace of the Equestrian Club come together.”
Protesta por falta y tarifa del transporte frente a Concresa… Vecinos de Santa Cruz del Este yTerrazas del Club Hípico reclaman unidos.. pic.twitter.com/XIEdaZMXdi
— Héctor Urgelles (@UrgellesBaruta) July 2, 2018
Another protest also took place on the Ocumare-Charallave highway in Miranda state, where residents claimed they had not received potable water in days.
“Locals have been protesting since 3 am due to lack of water on the Charallave-Ocumare highway, and are now requesting the presence of the media,” wrote onlooker Rocely Romero in Twitter.
The last major water shortage in Venezuela was in February 2016, when authorities announced a weekend “maintenance” session designed to maintain sufficient water levels during a period of drought. An estimated three million in Caracas consequently went without water, where the average temperature at that time of year is 68F.
The lack of clean water is the latest in a string mass shortages experienced in Venezuela under the rule of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. Access to basic resources from food to medicine is now extremely limited, mainly as a result of hyperinflation that has rendered its Bolivar country as practically worthless. Based on real worth exchange rates, the country’s minimum wage is roughly equivalent to one dollar ($1) a month.
The country is now widely regarded to be in its worst ever economic and humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people now fleeing to neighboring countries such as Brazil and Colombia.
Too bad you can’t drink oil…..still trying to figure out with all their oil wealth, why this? Is the corruption that bad here? answer- Yes, and yet, not a peep about it.
Venezuela’s northern border is about 1000 miles of coastline on the Caribbean sea. Instead of protesting, get to the shore and start distilling water.
Boil the sea water, capture & condense the steam, and drink all the water you want.
Distillation is a bit more complicated if you’re making booze, because you don’t want to lose the alcohol content, but desalination of water isn’t too difficult.
The joke in Venezula is “”that person is so poor they cant even buy gas””””
Venezuela is showing the world what happens to a country when it has an illiterate, uneducated bus driver running the government, with a congress full of communist thieves. There is a shortage of everything in Venezuela. Lack of water may be the final blow to finish off the remaining population who haven’t been able to flee the country.