Taps Run Dry in Venezuelan Capital as Power Cuts Hit Water Pumps
- People hunt for water in streams, parks; drain swimming pools
- Protests on the rise as angry citizens demand public services
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Residents of Caracas are standing in long lines waiting to fill drums with water as a national power crisis stretches into a fourth week, keeping vital pumps from reservoirs off line and exacerbating a deepening shortage in the Venezuelan capital amid a drought.
Dozens slept in line for their turn at a well near Petare, the city’s biggest slum. Three men hurled an old paint bucket tied with ropes down a well hoping to hit water. Cars parked by the nearby Cota Mil highway waited for their turn to place bottles under small streams that run down the Avila mountain. In one of the city’s main parks, residents took turns tapping hoses meant to water the plants while their children played nearby.