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. iii Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR LIC 2058 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 v Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR LIC 2058 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. vii Zairis Coello Midence Balthasar TRITA LWR LIC 2058 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