Water and Sanitation in Ushuaia

Water and Sanitation in Ushuaia

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego.

We worked on the screening stages of a project to construct safe water and wastewater effluents network for neighborhoods in higher areas of Ushuaia.

 PROJECT FINISHED
WORK LINE: WATER AND SANITATION
TECHNICAL AREA: INFRASTRUCTURE
0 Volunteers
0 Neighborhood
0 Households

Coordinators

Alejandra Portatadino, Eng.

Actors involved

Provincial government through the Direction of Water Resources, Direction of Land and Habitat, Direction of Sanitary Works and Services, local residents, civil associations, and ISF-Ar volunteers. We work collectively with the City’s Water and Sewerage Master Plan and the Sanitation Commission.

What we have done

Together with the city’s Water and Sewerage Master Plan (Plan Director de Aguas y Cloacas), we worked to provide residents of the informal settlements with a planned and organized safe drinking water and sewerage supply. The project was declared of municipal interest by the Ushuaia’s Council. It consisted of the following three stages:
First stage:
Assessment of the water system (sources for provision, abstraction and storage for water treatment).
Second stage:
Land surveying and analysis to carry out a planimetric map and design possible urban planning of existing and future housing.
Third stage:
Construction of networks.

Why

Houses in the area, which have been built spontaneously, dispose of domestic effluents by dumping these directly into rivers, curbs or precarious cesspits. In some cases, this situation occurs in areas with steep slopes, which facilitates the subsurface runoff of wastewater. Water abstraction conditions from streams are precarious: it is carried out by unorganized installation of plastic containers and hoses, which leads to supply shortages, without considering the installation of a chemical protection barrier from germs and bacteria. This results in the proliferation of waterborne diseases. Cases of gastrointestinal disease in children have increased due to untreated water consumption and due to their daily activities next to the sewage spillages.
The lack of a fire fighting hydrant system in these informal settlements has led to an increase in fires over the last few years caused by negligence in firewood heating, which is customary in the area.

With this project we

  • Collaborated with the Human Rights to access safe drinking water.
  • Improved Ushuaia’s informal settlements residents’ health, safety and quality of life.

Professionals involved

  • Alejandra Portatadino, Engineer, Engineering Without Borders Argentina Project Coordinator.
  • Gerardo Noir, Engineer, General Director of Water Resources (Co-Coordinator, stages 1 and 2.).
  • Sergio Camargo, Engineer, Head of Department, Direction of Water Resources.
  • Oscar Garramuño, Engineer, Director of Provincial Direction of Sanitary Works and Services.
  • Cristian Hervias, Engineer, Foreman in Provincial Direction of Sanitary Works and Services.
  • Yamila Norha, B.S., Head of Department, Direction of Water Resources.
  • Tec. José Pacheco, Head of Division, Direction of Water Resources.
  • Tec. Rodrigo Iturraspe, Head of Division, Direction of Water Resources.

Images