INSUFFICIENT WATER SUPPLY IN AN URBAN AREA CASE STUDY: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS
Zairis Aida Coello Midence Balthasar
December 2011
TRITA-LWR LIC 2958 ISSN 1650-8629 ISRN KTH/LWR/LIC 2058-SE ISBN 978-91-7501-211-7 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR LIC 2058
© Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar 2011 Licentiate Thesis Water Management Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM, Sweden Reference to this publication should be written as: Coello Balthasar, Z (2011) Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras TRITA LWR LIC 2058.
ii Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was financed by the Department of Research Cooperation of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA/SAREC) within the collaboration program between the Universidad Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH). I would like to thank my supervisors Jan Erik Gustafsson, Patricia Phumpiu and Gladis Rojas for providing me with the support to carry out my research and for helping me get started in the scientific world. I wish to extend my profound gratitude to Berit Balfors and Stella Lowder whose support, advice and guidance were essential for the finalization of this research. I wish to express my gratitude for the support provided by UNAH, especially Lelany Pineda; Mónico Oyuela; Saul Jimenez and also to Patricia Hernandez for providing me with working facilities during my visits to Honduras. This research would not have been possible without the support of the submanager of SANAA, Ricardo Velasquez and everyone who contributed during the interviews. Special thanks to Alejandro Somoza, Rodolfo Ochoa and Luis Romero for providing me with generous amount of information. I am deeply grateful for the support received from the University of Glasgow, specially Trevor Hoey and John Briggs for opening me the doors of the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences and Maggie Cusack and Joanne Sharp for continuing the support. From KTH I would like to thank Aira Saarelainen, Katrin Grünfeld and Jerzy Buczak. Your help goes far beyond the call of duty. You were always there to provide me guidance, advice and a friendly smile whenever I needed one. Thanks to the rest of the staff and students for the very useful discussions. I also want to thank for the contributions of many of my friends: Alessa Geiger, Delia Gheorghiu and Flavia Forte who helped me to elaborate the maps and diagrams; Nelly Rodriguez who helped me to acquire programming skills; Ida Westerberg who helped me with the hydrologic analysis and maps; Elias García who provided very useful pictures and Garfield Tait who is permanently helping me to improve my English. My deepest gratitude also goes to all of my friends who have helped me to feel like home, wherever I am. Special thanks to Zhihong Zhao who has always been willing to help me unconditionally in all situations. I want to thank Marita Wingren and Veronica Melander for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to continue with my research. Special thanks for the support of my husband Uwe Balthasar, my friend Anneli Häyrén Weinestål, and my family. Your faith and confidence in me is what has kept me standing all this time. Thanks for always believing in me.
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iv Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS AMITIGRA Non governmental organization working for the environmental protection of the La Tigra national park AMUC Actualised marginal unitary cost BCIE Central American Bank for Economic Integration CCWM Coefficient-of-correlation- weighting method CONASA National Water and Sanitation Council ENEE National Power Company ERSAPS Regulatory Entity for the Potable Water and Sanitation Sector GHCN Global Historical Climatology Network IBD Inter-American Development Bank IDW Inverse-distance-weighting method JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency L. Lempiras, Honduran currency MAE Mean absolute error MRE Mean relative error NOAA U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration OK Ordinary kriging PCI Pacific Consultants International RMSE Root-mean-square error SANAA National Autonomous Service of Aqueducts and the Sewage Systems SERNA Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment SITRASANAAYS Workers trade union of SANAA SOGREAH Societe Grenobloise d'Etudes et d'Application Hydrauliques SMN National Weather Service UFW Unaccounted for water UK Universal kriging UNAH National Autonomous University of Honduras USGS U.S. Geological Survey US$ United States Dollar WSS Water Supply and Sanitation
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vi Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgements iii Abbreviations and symbols v Table of Content vii List of Papers vii Abstract 1 Introduction 1 Description of the Study Area 3 Developed Water Supply Projects 6 Temporary Solutions 8 Proposed Water Supply Projects 10 Decision Making and the Water Sector Reform 10 Methodology 13 Precipitation Analysis (Paper I) 13 Analysis of the Reasons Leading to an Insufficient Water Supply (Paper II) 15 Results and Discussion 16 Quantifying the Available Water Resource (Paper I) 17 Investment for a Sufficient Water Supply (Paper II) 19 Conclusions and Future Research 22 References 24 Other references 27 LIST OF PAPERS I. Westerberg, I., Walter, A., Guerrero, J.-L., Coello, Z., Halldin, S., Xu, C.-Y., Chen, D. and Lundin, L.-C. (2010). Precipitation data in a mountainous catchment in Honduras: quality assessment and spatiotemporal characteristic. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 101(3): 381-396. II. Coello-Balthasar, Z., and Balfors, B. (2011) Problems faced by a national water utility in an urban area, case study: Tegucigalpa Honduras. Submitted to the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, October 2011.
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viii Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
ABSTRACT Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, has experienced an unsatisfied water demand during the last three decades. The state owned water utility in charge of the water supply of the country, SANAA, has faced this deficit by providing an intermittent water supply. The intermittent water supply has increased the gap between the rich and the poor, who cannot afford water storage facilities. Theories explain water scarcity either by low precipitation or by lack of investment in water structures. This thesis investigates the applicability of both explanations by quantifying the annual precipitation in the sub catchments with water supply potential for Tegucigalpa, and identifying the problems which caused the lack of investment into the water infrastructure. The analysis concluded that even if the annual precipitation is abundant, it is not evenly distributed in time and in space. Furthermore, it is argued that the financial limitations which hindered the lack of investment in water structures originated in the low tariffs imposed, and to the practices of the patronage system.
Key words: Water supply; Honduras; SANAA; Tegucigalpa; Water utility.
INTRODUCTION and 11.4% in rural areas mainly due to the financial assistance from international Much emphasis is given to the role a good cooperation (Serrano, 2007). Nowadays the water supply plays in the development of the percentage of the population with access to economies of poor countries and on the piped water is 95% in the urban areas and health of their inhabitants. On average 14-16 77% in the rural areas (JMP, 2010). billion US$ are spent each year on the water However, figures for service coverage do supply and sanitation of developing not reveal the quality of the service, for only countries (UNDP, 2006). The achievements 15% of the water distributed in the urban of these investments are reflected in the area and 75% in rural area receives statistics on access to water. In Latin chlorination treatment (Serrano, 2007). America and the Caribbean, 167 million Besides, the service is provided people have gained access to a piped water intermittently in 90% of the network connection between 1990 and 2008. systems in the whole country However, the improvements have barely (OPS/OMS, 2003). kept up with the population growth (WHO/UNICEF, 2010). One of the Latin American countries having difficulties to satisfy its population‘s need of access to a safe source of water is Honduras. Honduras is a tropical country located in Central America (Fig. 1). It has a population of approximately 7.5 million inhabitants (INE, 2007). Honduras has been recognized by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as a heavily indebted poor country in need of international financial assistance to achieve sustainable development. The coverage of the water distribution network has increased between Fig. 1: Honduras is located in the centre 2001 and 2006 by 6.2% in the urban areas of Central America.
1 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
The intermittent water supply poses several severe as just providing water during 6 to 8 problems which have been addressed by hours on every second or third day researchers. Vairavamoorthy (2007) listed (SANAA, 2010). problems such as: (a) low pressure in the A portion of the population of Tegucigalpa network, caused by severe pressure losses managed to cope with the intermittent from big flows in undersized networks since service by building or installing storage tanks water is being consumed for a short that are filled when water is provided, thus duration; (b) inequitable distribution of making the household more independent water, since consumers in high pressure from interruptions of supply (Fig. 2). In areas draw more water than those in low 1992, it was estimated that households in pressure areas; (c) contamination of water Tegucigalpa had invested between 3 US$ occurs in networks where the pollutants and 9 million for tanks and pumping enter through leaks in the supply pipes that systems to compensate for the unreliable are empty during the prolonged periods of supply (Lauria, 1992). However, 15.1% of interruption of supply; (d) coping costs of the inhabitants of Tegucigalpa live below the the consumers, including storage facilities, line of poverty (World Bank, 2006) and are alternative water supplies, pumping, not able to afford water storage facilities1. It treatment facilities. has been estimated that the poor would have The intermittent service has increased social to pay 8.37 US$ per cubic meter of water to inequality because the economic capability private water vendors and would only be of a household to invest in the construction able to consume approximately 24 litres per or installation of a storage facility will person per day 2(Nauges and Strand, 2007), represent the difference between having which is less than half of the 50 litres per water or not. Additionally, pathogen person per day recommended as the basic contamination occurs in the stored water at household level due to improper storage and handling (Jensen et al, 2002). Therefore, considering the overall poor quality of the water supply, it is no surprise that even if the cases of water borne diseases, such as diarrhoea, have decreased (Deal et al, 2010), diarrhoea still ranks as the first cause of morbidity in Honduras, with 219,246 reported cases during 2010 (OPS, 2010). It was also the cause of 10% of the deaths of children below 5 years in 2008 in the whole country (OMS, 2010). The National Autonomous Service of Fig. 2: Installment of high storage tanks Aqueducts and the Sewage Systems (Servicio to cope up with the intermittent water Autónomo de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, supply has become a popular practice in SANAA), has been the public authority Tegucigalpa (photo by Elias García). responsible for water supply and waste water in Honduras since 1961. Therefore, SANAA is responsible for the water supply of 1According to the World Bank, extreme poverty Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, with lines considers extreme poverty line as the more than one million inhabitants (INE, monthly cost of food that would provide 2,200 2007). It was during the 1980‘s that SANAA calories per day based on observed eating introduced an intermittent water supply in patterns. The poverty line was estimated by Tegucigalpa in order to cope with the adding to the costs of the extreme poverty line a complement of non alimentary consumption. permanent shortage (Caballero, 1992). 2 Based on the original estimate of 0.7 m3 per Currently the intermittent service can be as month
2 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras water requirement standard for human regional level, by analyzing the rainfall needs (Gleick, 1996). Studies have revealed distribution in time and space in the sub that the inhabitants of the poor catchments with potential to supply water neighbourhoods in Tegucigalpa consider for Tegucigalpa (Paper I); (ii) to detect the that water provision is their most serious reasons that lie behind the lack of problem (Ortiz, 2002). investment in water supply projects (Paper II). When Seckler et al (1999) analysed the water supply and demand for 118 countries, Description of the Study Area Honduras was classified in the group which The subject of analysis of this thesis is was considered to have sufficient potential Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, water resources to meet needs by 2025, but located in the centre of the country (Fig. 1). needed to embark on massive water However, to analyse water availability, a development projects to achieve this different framework of analysis is required, objective. However, that research was that is, the catchment in which Tegucigalpa limited by the poor quality of the lies. A catchment is defined as the area of international data on water and also its land within which all water flows to a single availability only at a country level, not at the river system (Heathcote, 1998). The level of internal regions. catchment containing Tegucigalpa is the The general objective of this thesis is 7,500 km2 Choluteca River catchment therefore, to achieve a better understanding (Fig. 3). of the causes which lead to drinking water Figure 3 illustrates the complexity of the scarcity in Tegucigalpa and answer the area referred to as Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa research question of why Tegucigalpa does is in reality comprised of two neighbouring not possess a continuous water supply. This cities, Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, objective will be achieved by (i) quantifying separated only by the Choluteca River. the overall availability of water resources at a
Fig. 3: The capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, is situated in the centre of Honduras, in the upper Choluteca River Catchment. A detail of this map shows how the two cities, Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela are only separated by the Choluteca River and together they form the Metropolitan area. Map based on information from the National Census 2001 and the National System of Territorial Information (Sistema Nacional de Información Terrritorial, SINIT).
3 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
Tegucigalpa was declared the capital of Cabeceras Subcatchment, also known as the Honduras in 1849. In 1898, Comayagüela Upper Catchment. The Upper Catchment was declared part of the capital mainly to has a total extension of 816 km2 and is facilitate the location of diplomatic bodies located between longitudes 8728‘ and and governmental agencies, which needed to 8705‘ W and latitudes 1410´ y 1355‘ N. be located inside the area considered as the This Subcatchment is important for the capital (DGEC, 1980). The National water supply of Tegucigalpa because all of Congress declared that the union of both the existing sources, as well as the potential cities would be considered as two new sources of drinking water which would municipalities, forming what is known as the not require pumping, lie within this area. Municipality of the Central District, The Italian Consultant Company, C. Lotti & administered by the Metropolitan Council Associati, assessed four subcatchment areas (Consejo Metropolitano del Distrito in the Upper Catchment where potential Central). Because of this administrative new water sources could be located. These term, Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela are areas are: the 193 km2 Guacerique River sometimes referred to as the Metropolitan Subcatchment, the 141 km2 Grande River area. For the purpose of this research, no Subcatchment (also known as Concepción), distinction will be made between the 64 km2 Tatumbla River Subcatchment Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. The so called and the 48 km2 Sabacuante River Metropolitan area would be referred to as Subcatchment (Fig. 4) (SANAA, 2005). Tegucigalpa. Their description of these subcatchment Tegucigalpa is located in the upper part of areas includes the following points: the Choluteca River Catchment (Fig. 3). The Choluteca River catchment has an area of Highly mountainous topography with 7,500 km2. Its largest subcatchment is the elevations ranging from 900 to 2,400 meters above sea level.
Fig 4. Lotti analysed four subcatchments, enclosed within the black lines of the diagram, in the Upper Catchment of the Choluteca River. These subcatchments are Guacerique (NW), Concepción (SW), Tatumbla(NE) and Sabacuante (SE) (SANAA, 2005).
4 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Cabeceras subcatchment is located in an agriculture. Habits such as firewood area which covers seven municipalities extraction, outdoor defecation, inadequate (Central District, Lepaterique, Ojojona, disposal of inorganic waste, disposal of gray Tatumbla, San Antonio de Oriente, Santa waters directly into the rivers, and Ana, and San Buena Ventura). This political inappropriate agricultural practices, which division is a limiting factor for an efficient include misusage of chemical products catchment management. (fertilizers and pesticides), deforestation and soil degradation, have created stress in the The main use of land is forestry, natural resources of the area. specifically pine trees, which cover approximately 64% of the subcatchment Tegucigalpa, the specific subject of this areas. Other uses of land include pastureland research, has been characterized by intense (14%), fallow land (2%), scrubland (9.5%), population growth over the last decades. intensive agriculture (8%) and human During the 50‘s and 60‘s the Government, settlements (1.3%). The bodies of water became the main employer causing occupy approximately 0.6% of the area. The Tegucigalpa to become the focal point for rest of the area was not classified. poor rural immigrants (Caballero, 1992). The peak of the population growth was achieved Approximately 20,000 people lived in the during the period 1980-1995, with an described areas in 2001. The population lives average annual growth rate of 12% in extreme poverty practicing subsistence Fig. 5: Diagram showing the projects that would have to be built to fully satisfy the water demand of the growing population of Tegucigalpa. The x- axis represents the year when the projects would have to be incorporated and the y-axis represents water demand in m3/hour. The curves represent different water de-mand scenarios based on the presence or absence of leakage reducing maintenance (maintenance = solid line; no maintenance = dashed line; (SANAA, 1983).
5 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
(Ortiz, 2002). This growth is extremely high settlements lacking access roads, green areas, compared to the average of 2.7% the rest of schools and health clinics (Pearce-Oroz, Latin American capital cities had during the 2005). period between 1975-2000 (Cohen, 2004). It is important to note that water provision A complication in the accelerated growth of is a problem for all the neighbourhoods of Tegucigalpa is that the city is located at a site Tegucigalpa, legal and illegal. SANAA not well suited for urban expansion. It is provides water trucks to settlements without completely surrounded by steep mountains access to the pipe network according to a with very few valleys. The urban expansion calendar. The rest of the city within the has followed the trend of irregular land piped network also receives water, according tenure informal settlements, growing at the to a publicised calendar. edges of the urban core in the areas with Developed Water Supply Projects excessive slope or near the banks of the Choluteca River. These areas are accessible Besides the poverty of the country, SANAA to the urban poor due to their low value and has yet another problem when trying to undesirable topography (Pearce-Oroz, comply with their mission to provide water 2005). Dwellers in these areas face life- for the population of Honduras. This threatening situations, mainly during the problem is rainfall seasonality composed of rainy season, when the slopes become prone two well defined seasons, rainy and the dry. to landslides, and settlements near river The way to guarantee water availability banks are prone to flooding. throughout the year in these conditions is to store water during the rainy season in Informal settlements are trapped in a vicious reservoirs. circle where they need legal land titles to qualify for basic services (i.e. water, The same year SANAA was created, it sanitation, electricity, waste collection, etc), realized that Tegucigalpa needed a reservoir but where service installation is a (SANAA, 1983) to guarantee water supply requirement to obtain a title (Ortiz, 2002). In for the 164,941 inhabitants (DGEC, 1980). 1998, 225 of the 340 neighbourhoods of In May of the same year the construction of Tegucigalpa were considered illegal a new water reservoir in the Guacerique River was proposed as the best solution and
6 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1972 SANAA decided to build the It was not until 1991, when the deficit of reservoir. However, the project faced water had reached 37% during the dry financial difficulties and it never came to season (PCI, 2001) and the population had fruition, thus leaving Tegucigalpa with an increased to more than 576,661 (DGEC, unsatisfied water demand (SANAA, 1983). 1989), that an additional source of water was In 1973, 12 years after the Guacerique incorporated to the supply of Tegucigalpa. reservoir had been proposed for first time, This new reservoir, Concepcion, was built the situation was becoming so critical that by the Italian construction company Astaldi, the ―Emergency Plan Los Laureles‖ was with Italian finance. Although Concepcion initiated for the construction of a water was supposed to cover the water demand reservoir for Tegucigalpa. The resulting until 2004 (SANAA, 1990), by 1998 SANAA reservoir, Los Laureles, was finished in 1976 was forced to re-introduce an intermittent with financial support from the Central water supply (PCI, 2001). American Bank for Economic Integration Since the construction of Concepción, no (BCIE) (OIRSA, 2007). The reservoir was considerable sources of water have been built downstream of what would have been added to Tegucigalpa‘s water supply while Guacerique and with a smaller storage the population has almost doubled and was capacity than the original plans of 1961. This close to one million in 2007 (INE 2007). Of diminished capacity, together with an the nine projects and the maintenance to the increased population, meant that soon after distribution network planned in 1980 (see its construction Los Laureles could not Fig. 5), only four have been developed. The satisfy the water demand of the 305,387 distribution network received maintenance inhabitants (DGEC, 1980). As a result of the only after it was partially destroyed by continuing water shortage SANAA Hurricane Mitch in 1998 (JICA, 2006). introduced an intermittent water supply Groundwater has been added to the water during the 1980‘s (Caballero, 1992). supply, but only in small quantities
Fig. 6: Approximate location of the water sources of water for Tegucigalpa.
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(Berrios, 2009). Concepcion reservoir now that whenever a new project has been receives additional water from the Ojojona incorporated to the water supply of River and floodgates were built above the Tegucigalpa, it has been as a reaction to an spillway increasing the storage capacity of existing (Coello-Balthasar et al, 2011). the reservoir by 3.0 Mm3 (JICA, 2006). In Temporary Solutions Los Laureles, a 3.5 m high inflatable curtain was incorporated in 2002 to increase water In the meantime SANAA tries to find storage by 3.5 Mm3. More water has been finance for the construction of a new directed to Picacho and in 2010 the capacity reservoir; they have also to find ways to of water treatment plants was increased by manage the actual deficit. The shortage of 200 l/s. Nevertheless, the storage capacity of the drinking water supply is felt more Los Laureles is decreasing by 2% annually as intensively during the dry season. It is then the reservoir is silting up (Lee, 1996). The when then the reservoirs fall to their inflatable curtain, which is about to reach minimum level and the availability of water the end of its life, has not operated in 2010 depends on whether the reservoirs stored (Morales and Garcia, 2010). Table 1 enough water during the last rainy season. summarizes the existing projects with their The first measure SANAA takes to prepare improvements. Figure 6 gives an itself for the coming dry season is to create a approximation of the location of each strategic plan for the extraction of water source. A new project, an update of the from the reservoirs. This strategic planning previously proposed Guacerique, now called is done by creating models of different Guacerique II, is a priority for the SANAA scenarios that would assure the availability management as a solution for the continuing of the stored water until the beginning of water crisis in Tegucigalpa. the new rainy season (Table 2). The variables This historical context helps identify the involved are extraction of water, level of causes that led to the present crisis. History water in the reservoirs, expected demand reveals that this is not the first time and expected beginning and intensity of the Tegucigalpa faces water shortage. The rainy season. The models are recalibrated pattern to introduce a new project has been continuously once the dry season starts. Table 2: Example of one scenario for the planning of the dry season of 2006. Translated from Zepeda (2006); Abbreviations are: Elev.=elevation; PIC = El Picacho; MIR = Miraflores; Q=production; Vol.=stored volume; DIVISION METROPOLITANA PROGRAMMED PRODUCTIONS FOR 2006 PROGRAMMED PRODUCTION (m3/s) TOTAL DEMAND DEFICIT CONCEPCION LAURELES PIC. MIR.
Q Elev. Vol. Q Elev. Vol Q 3 3 3 3 Month Q (m /s) m /s m /s m /s (m3/s) (m) (m3x106) (m3/s) (m) (m3x106) (m3/s)
NOV/05 1.20 1155.30 33.54 0.75 1031.70 9.15 0.90 0.065 2.92 3.25 0.34 DEC/05 1.20 1154.10 31.16 0.67 1029.40 7.53 0.90 0.065 2.84 3.25 0.42 JAN 1.10 1151.97 28.22 0.61 1025.50 5.91 0.85 0.050 2.61 3.25 0.64 FEB 1.10 1150.29 25.56 0.50 1021.98 4.54 0.75 0.040 2.39 3.25 0.86 MAR 1.20 1147.70 22.34 0.50 1018.08 3.24 0.50 0.035 2.24 3.25 1.02 APR 1.20 1144.91 19.23 0.50 1012.13 1.95 0.30 0.020 2.02 3.25 1.23 MAY 1.20 1141.52 16.02 0.50 1004.80 0.65 0.50 0.040 2.24 3.25 1.01 JUN 1.10 1138.49 13.17 0.80 1033.00 10.50 0.75 0.050 2.70 3.25 0.55 JUL 1.10 1135.13 10.22 0.80 1033.00 10.50 0.75 0.050 2.70 3.25 0.55 AUG 1.10 1130.90 7.28 0.80 1033.00 10.50 0.85 0.060 2.81 3.25 0.44 SEP 1.10 RAIN 0.80 1033.00 10.50 0.90 0.065 2.87 3.25 0.39
OCT 1.10 0.80 1033.00 10.50 0.90 0.065 2.87 3.25 0.39
8 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The outcome of the calibrations is exacted in order to re-establish the service. transformed into a time table which is A second lapse leads to a cut of the service published every second week in the local and a higher fine of 78 US$ to re-establish newspapers. The time table shows the days the service. A third transgression leads to the and hours when piped water will be supplied permanent loss of the service to the to each neighbourhood (Table 3). household. The population connected to the piped SANAA also publishes a schedule of the system has been instructed to avoid wasting days and time they will provide water via water by advertisements on the radio, in cistern trucks to the neighborhoods not newspapers and on the streets sponsored by connected to the piped system. private companies and SANAA (Fig. 7). Unfortunately, SANAA lacks enough cistern SANAA has established sanctions against trucks to provide a good coverage of all the actions such as the usage of hoses to water areas with the required frequency, for most gardens or wash cars, wash sidewalks, and of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods spillage from water storage tanks. If a user is are extremelly poor (Pearce-Oroz, 2005) and found during the regular patrolling lack water storage capacity. They then have performed by SANAA doing any of these to rely on private water vendors. Private actions, different sanctions apply. For a user water vendors purchase water from a found wasting water for the first time, the division of SANAA called Aquabloq and sell service of piped water to the household will it to the poor neighborhoods at a higher be cut and a fine of 47 US$3 would be is price. Figure 8 illustrates how the volume sold to
3 private water vendors increased until 2007 The conversion factor for currency exchange reflecting a growing demand. Values used is 1 US$ = L.19.03.
9 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
PCI analysis of costs included variables such as the construction of the dam, the conduction line, water treatment plant and transmission line. After performing the cost/production analysis, PCI concluded that the preferred alternatives were the Quiebramontes and Laureles II Reservoirs, located 8 and 4 km upstream of Los Laureles respectively. PCI prioritized the construction of Laureles II for financial reasons, and recommended that by 2015 both, Laureles II and Quiebramontes, should be operating to cover the demand at that time. PCI reinforced the importance of controlling leakages in the distribution network as a water saving strategy, even if financially speaking the investment did not seem attractive. The French Consultant Company, Fig. 7: Publicity aiming to raise the SOGREAH, performed their study in 2003. awareness of the population towards SOGREAH estimated a deficit of 1.24m3/s protecting water. The message on street by 2015 if no new sources of water were sign reads “Every drop counts, take good added to the supply. SOGREAH proposed care of them”. to substitute the Quiebramontes Reservoir obtained between 2008 and 2010 are not reliable because the volumes were estimated based on income data of water sold. Additionally, before April 2008, only one centre of Aquabloq operated. After that date, two additional centres started operating in different parts of Tegucigalpa. Proposed Water Supply Projects International consultant companies have proposed alternatives which to increase the water volume in the distribution system of Tegucigalpa. The Japanese consultant company, PCI, performed their study in 2001. PCI estimated a deficit of 1.03m3/s by 2015 if no new sources of water were added to the supply. PCI suggested alternatives such as Fig. 8: Graph showing the total reduction of leakages in the distribution annual volume of water sold by network, dredging of the sediments in Los Aquabloq. The graph from 2004 to Laureles reservoir and also the inclusion of a 2007 was obtained from the measured new source of water to solve the water monthly volume of sold water. The deficit. Table 4 summarizes the different graph from 2008 to 2010 was obtained alternatives proposed by PCI and the indirectly from total monthly income approximate location of each project is depicted in Figure 9. from water sold.
10 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras with a Guacerique II Reservoir, located actualised marginal unitary cost (AMUC). downstream of the proposed The AMUC was estimated by dividing the Quiebramontes site, but slightly upstream of sum of all the costs between 2004 and 2030 Laureles II. SOGREAH also considered two by the total volume of water produced new alternative reservoirs other than those during the same time frame. proposed by PCI, Rio del Hombre 6 and A summary of the final alternatives analysed Rio del Hombre 7; the latter is located 4 km is described in Table 5 and the approximate downstream, and approximately 30 km location can be observed in Figure 9. north of Tegucigalpa. Another alternative Nacaome Reservoir does not form part of evaluated by SOGREAH is the use of water the final analysis because preliminary results from the existing Nacaome Reservoir, showed that the volume of water is not located 65 km south of Tegucigalpa, and sufficient to supply water to Tegucigalpa. built for hydropower generation, water SOGREAH concluded Guacerique II is the supply and irrigation purposes. best alternative and should be prioritised The cost analysis performed by SOGREAH among the other options. Its construction is included the same variables analysed by PCI, important to protect Los Laureles from the but additional costs such as operational excessive catchment deterioration caused by costs, compensatory expenses and the the fast growing urbanization of the area. unforeseen were also included. For example, The incorporation of Del Hombre Nacaome Reservoir, as well as the del Reservoirs, either 6 or 7, could be done Hombre Reservoirs are outside the years later because the area is not under Cabeceras subcatchment. Their operation urbanisation pressure. Sabacuante was not would require pumping; therefore, electricity considered financially attractive due to the costs must be included when making a high investment and low water production comparison to the other alternatives. potential. SOGREAH, as well as PCI, Operational costs were included by using the emphasized the urgency of controlling the excessive leakages in the distribution Table 4: Alternatives proposed by PCI network. (PCI 2001). Supply Decision Making and the Water Specific Cost Project Cost (US$) Capacity (US$/m3/day) (m3/s) Sector Reform Dredging of At this point, the thesis has discussed Los Laureles 48,800,000 0.05 12,029 proposals to add new sources of water and Reservoir actions to cope with insufficient water. But, Los Laureles II 28,300,000 0.15 2,178 Reservoir
Quiebramontes Table 5: Projects proposed by 212,000,000 0.98 2,510 Reservoir SOGREAH to solve the deficit of water
Sabacuante in Tegucigalpa. Construction costs 93,000,000 0.24 4,574 Reservoir include the water treatment plant but exclude the conduction and distribution Tatumbla 115,000,000 0.21 6,431 Reservoir expenses associated with the new project (SOGREAH 2004). Supply Reduction of AMUC Project Cost (US$) Capacity leakages by 3 (US$/m³) replacement of 160,000,000 0.32 5,749 (m /s) pipelines of 8” Guacerique II 132,100,000 0.58 0.87 of diameter Del Hombre 95,400,000 0.79 0.57 Reduction of River (6) leakages by Del Hombre replacement of 167,300,000 1.5 0.65 22,800,000 0.03 10,238 River (7) pipelines of 3/4” of diameter Sabacuante 82,800,000 0.2 1.25
11 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
Fig. 9: Diagram illustrating the location of the alternative new sources proposed by SOGREAH and PCI. who decides what is done? When SANAA municipalities became responsible for was created in 1961, it was meant to have constructing, administering and maintaining the responsibility for planning, designing, the networks of piped water and sewage, constructing, operating, administering and functions that were the responsibility of providing maintenance to the water supply SANAA. Therefore, the Municipal Law and sewage systems in Honduras. The role resulted in duplicity of functions; this was of administrator and planner of SANAA has clarified in 2003 when the Water Supply and been criticized because of a biased Sanitation (WSS) Sector Framework Law distribution of financial resources favouring (Ley Marco del Sector Agua Potable y the urban areas (Walker et al, 2000). During Saneamiento) was approved. the years to come, the role SANAA has The WSS Sector Framework Law produced played in the water sector will radically the following changes in the water sector: change due to changes in the legislation at a The creation of the National Water and National level which has taken place during Sanitation Council (Consejo Nacional de the last decades. Agua Potable y Saneamiento, CONASA). A reform of the water sector took place in CONASA is responsible for establishing and 1990 when the National Congress of approving policies, developing strategies, Honduras passed the Municipal Law bill. defining objectives and goals, and The objective of this Law was the investment programs, as well as coordinating devolution of power from the national to the activities for improving the water and municipal levels to improve the overall living sanitation sector at a national level. standard of different municipalities since The creation of the Regulatory Entity for they faced different problems which needed the Potable Water and Sanitation Sector local solutions. As part of this law, (Ente Regulador de los Servicios de Agua
12 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Potable y Saneamiento, ERSAPS). ERSAPS their lack of experience. The municipality is responsible for creating the mechanisms will therefore be forced to hire an to regulate and control the providers of the international company to run the service. sewage and water services at a national level. The service might then be seen as a business ERSAPS is also responsible for the that would harm the poor who would not be regulation of water tariffs according to their able to afford the charges criteria, methods and procedures. (SITRASANAAYS, 1998). That same The WSS Sector Framework Law argument caused the failure of the reform in assigned the responsibility for providing the 1990. However, during the course of this service of drinking water and sewage to the research, officials from CONASA assured municipalities. This law specifically stated that this fear was unfounded for the reform that SANAA should transfer gradually, free of 2003 included the creation of a regulator, of any debts, all systems and all their assets ERSAPS. It is the duty of ERSAPS to to the municipalities within five years. It was protect the population from high fees. decided that during the transition period Several water supply systems have already SANAA would continue to operate and been returned to the local municipalities administer the water systems under the with mixed stories of success and failure regulation of ERSAPS, and in preparation (Walker et al, 2000). for the takeover, provide technical and METHODOLOGY administrative training for the municipalities. After the transfer, which was originally The analysis of this thesis was carried out in planned for 2008, it was intended that two parts. The first part aimed to obtain a SANAA would become a technical figure of the availability of water resources secretariat to support the municipalities, in the subcatchments with water supply CONASA and ERSAPS. potential for Tegucigalpa. This goal was achieved by performing a quantitative The Framework Law also demands that geostatistical analysis using daily SANAA pays compensatory work benefits precipitation data of the meteorological to all of its employees who will be dismissed. stations in the Choluteca River Catchment. The financial resources to cover these The second part aimed at achieving a better compensation costs were supposed to be underlying of the reasons causing the made available by the President of financial limitations which have lead to an Honduras. By 2008 the funding of these underinvestment in water infrastructure costs was still unresolved and a modification which would assure a continuous water to the WSS Sector Framework Law was supply in Tegucigalpa. This goal was issued identifying the need to find a way to achieved by using a qualitative approach finance the compensatory work benefits, as through interviews to actors involved in the well as strategies for the technical - decision making process. A description of administrative training of the new providers the methods follows. of the service. An extension of five more years was granted to finalize the Precipitation Analysis (Paper I) municipalisation of the water sector in The study was divided into three parts Tegucigalpa and to pay the work benefits of according to the aims: (i) collection and the employees, which amount to more than merging of available precipitation data, (ii) 35.5 million US$ (CONASA, 2006). quality control and characterisation of data, Controversy has risen over the changes in and (iii) spatial interpolation and analysis of the water sector. Opponents to these spatial characteristics. changes argue that it is tending towards Data were reformatted and consolidated privatization. The claim is based on the from several sources in the first step. belief that the municipalities will not be able Meteorological stations collecting data are to administer and operate the service due to operated by several institutions in the area:
13 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
Ministry of Natural Resources and missing daily values: the commonly used Environment (Secretaría de Recursos inverse-distance-weighting method (IDW) Naturales y Ambiente, SERNA), National using squared distance and the coefficient- Autonomous Service of Aqueducts and of-correlation- weighting method (CCWM). Sewage System (Servicio Autónomo The latter is based on the same principle as Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, IDW but correlation coefficients are used SANAA), National Weather Service instead of distance to calculate the weights (Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, SMN), of the n surrounding stations (Equation 1), National Autonomous University of n R Honduras (Universidad Nacional Autónoma i1 i mi m n (1) de Honduras, UNAH) and the National R i1 mi Power Company (Empresa Nacional de Energía Electrica, ENEE). The USGS (U.S. where θm is the missing value to be patched Geological Survey) operates some automatic and Rmi is the coefficient of correlation weather stations in co-operation with between the i:th station and station mi SERNA. Daily data were collected from the missing a value. All available simultaneous above-mentioned institutions. Monthly data data for the stations were used for the were retrieved from the Global Historical calculation of the correlation coefficient, Climatology Network (GHCN) version 2 with a minimum of 730 concurrent days set beta dataset (Vose et al, 1992) from NOAA as a requirement. In the case of the IDW (the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric method the inverse squared distance Administration) and from SERNA. Only between station m and station i replaces Rmi data from the Global Historical Climatology in equation 1. The mean absolute error Network (Vose et al, 1992) have undergone (MAE), the mean relative error (MRE), the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and the serious quality control. A great part of the 2 data was reformatted into time series before coefficient of determination (R ) were used it was put into the database. Coordinates of to evaluate the performance of the two most precipitation stations were checked in methods at all stations with data for the two the field while, at the same time, we periods 1985–1995 and 1996–2005. Two investigated the measurement equipment periods were used to account for possible and procedures. differences in performance because of different spatial distributions of data. The Several specific error types were best method was identified by calculating encountered and quality-control routines and comparing the mean absolute error were developed to tackle these errors during (MAE), the mean relative error (MRE), the the second step. A combination of root-mean-square error (RMSE) and the automated tests and visual data inspection coefficient of determination (R2). The was used in this study since the amount of selected method was later used to patch the data was not very large. Four types of quality dataset. Gaps were only patched if they were control were performed: shorter than a month and if there was at Outliers check for all daily values greater least one day with data during any given than 100 mm. month. Check for too-frequently occurring data. Spatial interpolation was performed on a Check for sequences with too-low data. monthly time scale as more monthly data were available and since monthly Check for dry months during the rainy correlations were expected to be much season. higher than daily correlations. The mean Interpolation was then performed in the annual and mean monthly spatial third step, where two methods for filling precipitation distributions were also short gaps in the data were first evaluated obtained through interpolation to and the best method was used. Two characterize the spatial properties of the methods were evaluated for the patching of precipitation regime in the basin.
14 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Finally, three spatial interpolation methods nugget, i.e., if there is no increase in semi- were used, all based on weighted linear variance with distance all stations get the combinations of the gauged data; a simple same weight. Both universal and ordinary method – inverse-distance weighting (IDW) kriging were performed as block kriging with – and two computationally demanding a block-size of 900 metres and a geostatistical methods - ordinary kriging discretisation size of 100 points per block. (OK) and universal kriging (UK) with Analysis of the Reasons Leading to coordinate base functions. As in the study by Goovaerts (2000), an omni-directional an Insufficient Water Supply semi-variogram was used because of the (Paper II) limited number of available stations, and the The research question was approached using variogram model was exponential with a the case study methodology. Case studies nugget effect. In the case of universal methods are preferable when ―how‖ and kriging, a trend is modelled as a function of ―why‖ questions are being asked about the coordinates and subtracted where after contemporary events over which the the residual semi-variogram is calculated. investigator has little or no control (Yin, The Gstat geostatistical software (Pebesma 2009).The case study research method and Wesseling, 1998) and the Gstat package requires data collection techniques using in R (Pebesma, 2004) were used for the multiple sources of evidence to provide interpolation. The automatic fitting of cross-data validity checks and test for curves to the sample semi-variograms were consistency, thus performing triangulation performed in Matlab to improve estimation (Patton, 2002; Yin, 2009). The sources of of the nugget parameter. The ordinary information for this research were obtained kriging reduces to a simple averaging of data by the use of qualitative data, that is, open- if the semi-variogram is modelled as a pure ended interviews and documentation.
Fig. 10: Sequence of the interviews performed in SANAA following the snowball sampling technique.
15 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
Qualitative methods facilitate study of issues according to Patton (2002), the sampling can in depth and detail by capturing and terminated when no new information is communicating the stories of the forthcoming from the new sampled. The participants telling what happened, when, to approach used to collect data through open- whom and with what consequences; they ended interviews involved outlining a list of represent a creative synthesis of years of protocol questions prior to each interview, participant observation and personal inquiry as a reminder regarding the information (Patton, 2002).Open-end questions allows which needed to be collected, making sure the respondent to express their thoughts that all relevant topics would be covered freely, spontaneously, and in their own with each respondent and also making sure language instead of forced to adapt to that the same basic lines of inquiry are preconceived answers (Frankfort-Nachmias pursued with each person interviewed and Nachmias, 1996), whereas documents (Patton, 2002; Yin, 2009). are important to provide specific details, and Documents were used to corroborate and to corroborate and augment evidence from augment evidence from other sources. other sources (Yin, 2009). Relevant documents included newspaper Focused interviews were carried out in articles, law decrees, reports from Tegucigalpa from April 12 to May 9, 2010 CONASA, ERSAPS and different with the actors identified as involved in the consultant companies, such as the Societe actual decision-making process in the water Grenobloise d'Etudes et d'Application sector: SANAA, CONASA, and ERSAPS. Hydrauliques (SOGREAH) and Pacific Additional interviews were performed with a Consultants International (PCI), work from consultant of SANAA, to two persons in different researchers and on-line reports charge of water treatment plants and from the World Bank and IDB. reservoirs, two SANAA trade union leaders Finally, case study evidence was examined to (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del discover causal links and build explanations SANAA y Similares, SITRASANAAYS) and (Yin, 2009). with the director of AMITIGRA, a NGO working for the environmental protection of RESULTS AND DISCUSSION the La Tigra national park, the site of the A false perception exists that the supply of springs that feed the Picacho water plant. drinking water in the humid tropic is more Due to the organizational complexity of than adequate to meet the needs of the SANAA, the snowball sampling technique region, when in reality, the distribution of was used as a method to identify rainfall is highly variable in time and space interviewees. This technique consists of (Bonell et al, 1993). The Central America locating one or more key individuals and region, for example, is characterized by a dry asking them to name others who would be and rainy season and rainfall distribution is likely candidates for the research (Russell, influenced the orientation of mountain 2000).The snowball sampling technique ranges and the configuration of coastlines resulted in seven interviews with managers relative to the seasonal flow patterns and two employees of different units of (Hastenrath, 1966). The alternating water SANAA. The snowball sampling technique scarcity and abundance affects agriculture, resulted in the sequence of the interviews human health and also the supply. A shown in Figure 10.The first person selected sustainable management of water resources to be interviewed using this technique was requires an inventory of what exists in the the Sub manager of the National Water system, identification of the key processes, Company (SANAA), Engineer Ricardo analysis of past environmental damage and Velasquez due to his high influence in the an assessment of the capability of the decision making process of SANAA. resource to support the various uses (Cullen, The total of seventeen interviews were 1990). considered to be sufficient because,
16 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Quantifying the Available Water 13 monthly ones were collected. However, Resource (Paper I) 22% of the daily data was removed after the Researchers have experienced difficulties in quality control. trying to quantify the available water The average yearly precipitation estimated resources in Honduras. One problem using three methods, inverse-distance- encountered was collecting meteorological weighting method (IDW), ordinary kriging data spread among five different (OK), and universal kriging (UK) (Fig. 11). uncoordinated agencies storing their data Due to limitations caused by the length of using various software or even paper format the precipitation time series, the mean (Flambard, 2003). Then, when processing annual precipitation distribution for the the data, researchers encounter an additional years 1975-1985 was interpolated using data problem which is the low quality of data. from 28 stations, whereas the period 1990- Low quality of information originates from 2005 was interpolated using data from 34 poor measurements, missing, made up or stations. The lack of stations in the miswritten values, low coverage of the area, mountainous parts of the upper catchment and erroneous station coordinates (Diaz had a clear effect on the interpolated map Chavez, 1984; Flambard, 2003; Paz for the earlier period in comparison to the Barahona, 2003; Balairon Perez et al, 2004; later period. In the cross validation Paper I). During the course of this research (Table 6), OK gave the best results in 1975- daily precipitation data for 60 stations and 85 and UK in 1990-2005.
Fig. 11: Mean annual precipitation in the Choluteca River Catchment (millimetre) 1975– 1985 (upper row, for the 28 stations with more than 50% complete years with monthly data during that period) and 1990–2005 (bottom row, for the 34 stations with more than 50% complete years with monthly data during the period) interpolated with inverse distance weighting (left), universal kriging (middle) and ordinary kriging (right).
17 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
Table 6: Cross-validation results for interpolation of mean annual precipitation with Ordinary Kriging (OK), Universal Kriging (UK) and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), errors calculated as observed – interpolated. Time period 1975 – 1985 1990 – 2005 Interpolation method OK UK IDW OK UK IDW Correlation coefficient 0.84 0.78 0.80 0.43 0.51 0.48 Mean error (mm) 11 23 20 8 8 34 Max. positive error (mm) 619 628 734 591 551 559 Max. negative error (mm) -317 -330 -347 -347 -374 -288 Mean absolute error (mm) 163 187 185 165 161 159 Mean relative error (%) 0.12 0.14 0.14 0.14 0.14 0.13 Root mean square error (mm) 209 240 243 218 209 215 Mean areal precipitation (mm) 1170 1190 1200 1150 1190 1140 The mean monthly precipitation for the advantageous to use kriging instead of IDW period 1990–2005 was higher in the upper in such cases. The low spatial parts of the basin in the dry season autocorrelation for monthly precipitation in December–April, with the opposite situation the dry season was likely associated with in the rainy season May–November precipitation generated on windward sides (Fig. 12). The analysis confirms the high of the mountains during northerly and spatial variability of the precipitation created easterly winds. by the precipitation-generating mechanisms. The high inter-annual precipitation The mean cross-validation errors were in variability, with scattered temporal coverage general lower for the UK and IDW methods of data, complicated the process of for spatial interpolation of monthly time achieving a representative mean annual series in 1970–2005. The difference was distribution. The interpolated mean annual most clearly seen in the correlation precipitation regime was very different for coefficient (Table 7). IDW was a better 1975–85 compared to 1995–2005, and it can interpolator than the UK in the dry season be concluded that neither dataset gives a when spatial dependence was low most of sufficient description of the spatial the time. Goovarts (2000) states it is less precipitation regime. In the first period there were more stations close to the coast, and in Table 7: Cross-validation results for the later period there were few stations there spatial interpolation of monthly but more in the upper catchment. However, precipitation data from 1970–2005 even with more data available in the with Ordinary Kriging (OK), mountainous upper areas in the later period, Universal Kriging (UK) and Inverse the spatial variability is most likely highly Distance Weighting (IDW). Errors underestimated. The ―bull‘s eyes‖ around calculated as observed minus the mountain stations illustrate this problem, if there were more stations in these areas the interpolated. high spatial variability would be more Error measures 1970– OK UK IDW realistically described. A denser and 2005 improved monitoring network is needed in Correlation coefficient 0.26 0.40 0.43 order to achieve a sufficiently accurate Mean absolute error (mm) 34 32 32 description of the local precipitation climate Mean error (mm) 0.66 0.86 2.46 (especially in the mountains) for local Max. positive error (mm) 134 126 133 applications. Min. negative error (mm) -73 -78 -71 Once the precipitation has been quantified, Mean relative error (%) 1.5 1.3 1.2 an approximation of the availability of water Root mean square error can be done. The estimated average annual 45 43 44 (mm)
18 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras precipitation in the Upper Choluteca Tatumbla River, the Guacerique and del subcatchment is approximately 1,100mm per Hombre Rivers are better for the year. Considering a total area of 816 km2 development of future water projects as they with water supply potential, then this are larger and receive more precipitation. precipitation represents a total of However, the availability of water is not 2,459,178m3/day. However, not all of the continuous through the year. The seasonality precipitation will be transformed into of rainfall produces floods during the surface runoff, which forms the surface months with high precipitation and droughts storage. A part will evaporate and another during the rest of the year. This seasonality part will infiltrate to form the ground water leaves water planners with a challenge of storage which with time, will contribute to how to manage the available resources the surface storage at a much slower rate efficiently and effectively. (Chow et al, 1988). For this subcatchment, Investment for a Sufficient Water approximately 24.6% of the rainfall will be transformed into surface runoff (Paz Supply (Paper II) Barahona, 2003) leaving 604,957m3/day to It is because of the pronounced seasonality satisfy the different needs of water. that the sources of water for Tegucigalpa This research agrees with the conclusions partially dry up during the dry season. As a drawn by SOGREAH and PCI that result the production of treated water drops compared to Sabacuante River and during the dry season by 17% in
Fig 12: Mean monthly precipitation (millimetre) interpolated with IDW for stations with more than 50% complete years of monthly data in the period 1990–2005. January through April in the upper row (left to right), May through August in the second row (left to right) and September through December in the bottom row (left to right).
19 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
(iii) absent, unchecked or ill-functioning Table 8: Causes of the financial meters leading to under-estimated water use limitations with the estimated relative (iv) a host of illegal connections. frequency. The ratio between the number of Relative Times employees per 1000 connections is generally Problem Frequency Mentioned (%) high. The precarious budgetary condition of Subsidized tariff 9 32 the water companies cause by highly Number of Personnel 7 25 subsidized water prices leads to the need for Lack of Financial intervention and subsidies from the national Support from the state or international lending bodies, and Central Government 4 14 also perpetual underinvestment to expand or Lack of a maintain the network. The bilateral loans are Decentralised Administration 3 11 usually subject to the use of engineering services and procurement of equipment High Unaccounted for Water 3 11 from the lending country, leaving the local Dependence on water companies with costly imports of international financial foreign components and dependent on aid 2 7 external expertise. TOTAL 28 100 The water supply service of Tegucigalpa fits quite Swyngedouw‘s (1995) characterization. Concepción, 53% in Los Laureles, and 67% The precarious finances of SANAA are only in Picacho and Sabacuante (CONASA, enough to cover the employees‘ payroll and 2005). With each ongoing dry season the leave no chance for investment or already stretched water resources of maintenance of the water supply network Tegucigalpa increasingly diminish and (Paper II). The analysis of the interviews SANAA faces the challenge to administer a attributed the lack of investment in water shrinking volume of available water to the infrastructure to the financial limitations of city‘s population. Due to broadly similar SANAA. Moreover, as in the general trend climatic situations and similarities in to explain the origin of these financial approaches to water administration, limitations was the low price of the water seasonality-related water supply challenges service, originated from a highly subsidized are a reality for many Latin American cities. tariff (32%), and the excessive amount of Swyngedouw (1995) made several employees who are draining the available generalizations about the Latin-American financial resources (25%) (Table 8). city water supply, excluding that of Buenos Additionally, interviews also described an Aires, Santiago and Caracas. The points endogenous problem, which is the brought up are: centralized administration as a cause of the Transmission and distribution is a financial limitations. This centralized monopoly public sector activity. administration is explained as SANAA for Tegucigalpa, better known as the
Water prices are highly subsidized. The Metropolitan division, subsidizes other non- system will therefore operate on ‗emergency‘ profitable regional centres in the country. interventions and subsidies from the Whether or not this is a correct policy or the national state or international lending reasons why the other regional centres are bodies. not economically independent is beyond of A sizeable amount of water is not the scope of this thesis. However, it is clear accounted for. This high unaccounted for that the water supply of Tegucigalpa is not water is the result of (i) physical losses as a benefiting from this redistribution of funds. result of poor maintenance (ii) free deliveries
20 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
It is very important to distinguish between patronage. In a spoils system, public jobs are the cause and effects of the financial used as rewards for political activity (Simon limitations. Assuming that SANAA would et al, 1991). The effects such a spoils system be a financially healthy agency, then, the has had on SANAA are: (i) financial Metropolitan division would have no need weakening due to the recruitment of to subsidize other centres, it would have unnecessary personnel; (ii) lack of sense of enough money to maintain and expand its identity between employees who realize their network, reduce the unaccounted for water, job would be threatened in the next electoral and would not be dependent on financial period; (iii) the lost of trained and highly aid. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The qualified personnel for political reasons origin of the financial limitations can (Flambard, 2003). therefore be stated as the cost of the service Patronage has had another dire effect on the and the amount of staff. water supply of Tegucigalpa which is the The low price of the water service in lack of a long term planning strategy. A new Tegucigalpa has been addressed by several manager and sub managers for SANAA are researchers, who have recognized that appointed after each presidential election. SANAA cannot expand or maintain the The frequent change of the senior distribution network (Lee, 1996; Strand, management constitutes a serious obstacle 2000; Walker et al, 2000). SANAA has never to the continuation that should exist in had control over the price which has been planning and actions, for it is not possible to traditionally established on the basis of the execute long term plans and projects when political interests, subject only to the the new administration wants to carry out approval from the National Government their own (Caballero, 1992). It was pointed (Strand, 2000). During the interviews it was out during the course of this research that a mentioned that an increase of water tariffs is previous manager of SANAA had only authorised when SANAA is unable to transformed it into a financially healthy pay its employees. agency without increasing the price of water, The high administrative costs originated but by promoting decentralization and from the excess of employees has also been reducing the amount of staff analysed using the efficiency indicator of (SITRASANAAYS, 1998). According to the staff per 1000 connections and also by interviews, the successors continued the observing the average annual cost of the tradition of recruiting political supporters, so labour force per connection. In developing returning SANAA to its previous state of countries the best practice target of staff per financial weakness. 1000 connections is 5 or less (Tynan and Because of the lack of financial resources Kingdom, 2002). A high indicator is a result SANAA, has not been able to maintain the of the political interference in the water existing network. The lack of maintenance is company‘s operation (SITRASANAAYS, reflected in the high unaccounted for water 1998; Walker et al, 2000; Tynan and (UFW). UFW is defined as the difference Kingdom, 2002). In the case of Tegucigalpa, between the amount of water pumped to the Walker et al (2000) estimated that in 1994, system and the water metered to customers this indicator was in the order of 13.6 and (Koch, 2010). High levels of UFW reflect the annual cost of labour per connection the failure to repair leaks and meters, replace was almost twice as much the cost of the old pipes, detect illegal connections, connections in the rest of the country. In implement good commercial practices, and 2003 the employees of SANAA at a national meter all uses (Yepes, 1992). The two critical level absorbed 70% of the utility budget and sides of the UFW are the financial burden 60% of those employees labour in for SANAA, who is producing water who Tegucigalpa (CONASA, 2006). The origin no one is paying for, and also the loss of of this excess of staff can be attributed to water which is much needed by the what is known as the spoils system or population of Tegucigalpa and which is
21 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058 probably just being wasted. The poor where Tegucigalpa lies by analyzing the coverage of measuring devices throughout precipitation distribution and another to Tegucigalpa makes it impossible to know seek for the reason why there has been a how much water is lost. Studies have lack of investment in water supply projects. estimated that the percentage of water lost The first analysis faced strong limitations ranges from 30% (SOGREAH, 2003) up to originating from the poor coordination 61% (Hermida, 2006). Financially speaking, among agencies collecting meteorological the volume of non-billed water can range data and the low quality of the collected from 46% during the months corresponding information. A denser and improved to the rainy season, to negative values during monitoring network, especially in the the months corresponding to the dry season mountains, is needed to achieve a sufficient (Hermida, 2006). The reasons behind this accurate description of the local phenomenon are the flat rates and the precipitation climate for local applications. intermittent water supply. During the dry However, the research has concluded that season SANAA would reduce the number the average annual precipitation for the of hours of service and the clients paying for stations in the Upper Choluteca an average consumption would still have to subcatchment is approximately 1,100mm per pay for a fixed volume of water that would year, with strong seasonal variability. not be received (Hermida, 2006) and also This research coincides with the conclusions because leakages do not exist if there is no drawn by SOGREAH and PCI regarding water in the pipes. During the rainy season the feasible areas with potential for water the number of hours of service per day is production projects. The areas with highest increased, therefore the consumption is precipitation correspond to the Guacerique higher and so is the volume that will be lost and del Hombre Rivers subcatchmnets. in leakages. Because these areas as bigger as well, they Either because of the financial limitations are more attractive for investment in water originated from the imposed low price of supply structures from the hydrologic point water, or from the excess of staff, the of view Central Government has played a key role in the financial problems of SANAA. The The precipitation gives an idea of the financial limitations have lead to a lack of potential availability of water resources. But, investment in expanding and maintaining how much water is needed to satisfy the the distribution network which have needs of the population of Tegucigalpa? furthermore lead to the actual water deficit Further research needs to be done to assess in Tegucigalpa. whether this amount is sufficient or not. The sufficiency will be determined by the CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE different water demands in the catchment. RESEARCH Once the different demands have been quantified, a model can be calibrated. This When Seckler et al (1999) analysed the water model would compare water demand and supply and demand for 118 countries, they availability in an integrated and sustainable mentioned that countries will face water way. This final step will provide the answer scarcity by 2025, either because of the low to the question how much water is needed precipitation, or because of the lack of to satisfy the needs in the subcatchment. investment in water development projects. In the case of Tegucigalpa, water scarcity is a The reasons causing the lack of investment problem of the present. This thesis sought into developing water supply infrastructure to answer the question of why Tegucigalpa were also analyzed. The analysis revealed the does not possess a continuous water supply origins of the financial limitations were by applying Seckler‘s explanations. So, two closely linked to the policies of Central analyses were performed; one to quantify the Government. The Central Government has available water resources in the catchment imposed low water tariffs on the water
22 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras service. Also jobs are used as rewards for political activity resulting in the recruitment of unnecessary staff by what is known as patronage. The patronage includes the change of senior management every presidential term which has led to a lack of a long term strategy. Thus, in those lines, a reform of the water sector, which includes limiting the influence of the Central Government, is vital.
23 Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR PhD Thesis 2058
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24 Insufficient water supply in an urban area – case study: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
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Other references INE (2007). Trigésima Quinta Encuesta Permanente de Hogares Septiembre 2007 EPHPM - XXXV. Honduras, Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Honduras. http://www.ine- hn.org/-EPHPM_XXXV/survey0/data/Cuadros/02.%20Poblacion.mht. Accessed July 2010. Morales, A. and Garcia, N. (2010). Ahora Desperdician el Agua. La Prensa. San Pedro Sula. http://archivo.laprensa.hn/Pa%C3%ADs/Ediciones/2010/05/25/Noticias/Ahora- desperdician-el-agua. Accessed May 2010. Zepeda, F. (2006). Programacion de Producciones para el Año 2006 Tegucigalpa, SANAA. Electronic spreadsheet.
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