Skip linksSkip to Content
play
Live
Navigation menu
  • News
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • US & Canada
    • Latin America
    • Europe
    • Asia Pacific
  • Middle East
  • Explained
  • Opinion
  • Sport
  • Video
    • Features
    • Economy
    • Human Rights
    • Climate Crisis
    • Investigations
    • Interactives
    • In Pictures
    • Science & Technology
    • Podcasts
play
Live

In Pictures

Gallery|Environment

In Pictures: Venezuela’s water shortage

Venezuela’s water crisis has driven some residents to rig their water systems and hand dig shallow wells at home.

A car drives past hauling a plastic water tank on it''s rooftop, in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, June 5, 2020. An estimated 86% of Venezuelans reported unreliable water servic
A car drives past hauling a plastic water tank on its rooftop, in the Petare neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
Published On 28 Jun 202028 Jun 2020
facebooktwitterwhatsappcopylink

Venezuela’s economic collapse has left most homes without reliable running water, so Caracas resident Iraima Moscoso saw water pooling at an abandoned construction site as the end of suffering for thousands of her poor neighbours.

Workers had long ago stopped building a nearby highway tunnel through the mountain above them. Yet, spring water continued to collect inside the viaduct and then stream past their homes, wasted. The construction firm had also left behind coils of tube.

Moscoso, 59, rallied her neighbours to salvage the materials and build their own system, tapping into the tunnel’s vast lagoon and running the waterline to their homes. Today, they are free of the city’s crumbling service and enjoy what many in Venezuela consider a luxury.

“Everybody here has water,” said Moscoso, seated on the stairs of her hillside neighbourhood of cinder block homes. “We all benefit.”

Venezuela’s water crisis is not new, but it has started driving residents to extraordinary measures – banding together to rig their own water systems and even hand dig shallow wells at home. Water today is even more important as a way to protect against the coronavirus pandemic.

Maria Eugenia Gil, of the Caracas-based nonprofit Clear Water Foundation, said residents have no other choice than to hunt for water, breaking a nationwide quarantine that was imposed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. They are exposing themselves to illness or possibly spreading the virus to others, she said.

“They don’t have an alternative,” Gil said. “You can’t stay at home locked inside if you don’t have water.”

Advertisement

President Nicolas Maduro’s government has accused political foes of sabotaging pump stations, and recently celebrated the purchase of a fleet of 1,000 “super tanker” trucks from China to deliver water to residents.

An estimated 86 percent of Venezuelans reported unreliable water service, including 11 percent who have none at all, according to an April survey of 4,500 residents by the nonprofit Venezuelan Observatory of Public Services.

Moscoso, who proudly organised her neighbours to build their own system, estimates that 5,000 people in her neighbourhood now have water. It started flowing in May, said Moscoso, who works at the mayor’s office.

Their above-ground waterline starts at the abandoned tunnel’s mouth and runs 1,000 metres (3,200 feet) under a highway, strung from power poles over a city street and down to their homes.

Four other neighbourhoods have run similar lines from the tunnel.

Moscoso said the water is perfectly safe, drinking down a glass as proof. She declined to say how much it cost them after salvaging the abandoned pipes, claiming she had no time to add up the expenses.

“For me, it’s priceless,” Moscoso said.

A man, wearing a protective face mask, pushes a dolly holding a container filled with water he collected from a street faucet, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 20, 2020. Water service in Venezuel
Water service in Venezuela has gotten so bad that poor neighbourhoods have started to rig private water systems or hand dig shallow wells. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
Advertisement
Buckets, some of them filled with water provided by a government tanker truck, stand in the living room of a house in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, June 15, 2020. Water shorta
Buckets, some of them filled with water provided by a government tanker truck, stand in the living room of a house in the Petare neighbourhood of Caracas. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
A man, wearing a protective face mask, pushes a dolly filled with empty containers, as he and a child go in search of water in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 20, 2020, during a relaxation of restr
Water shortages have continued to deepen in Venezuela at a time when the threat of the coronavirus makes washing hands even more critical. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
Residents fill their containers with water provided by a government tanker truck in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, June 15, 2020. Water shortages have continued to deepen in Ve
Residents fill their containers with water provided by a government tanker truck in the Petare neighbourhood of Caracas. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
A woman, wearing a protective face mask, pushes a dolly of containers filled with water, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 20, 2020, during a relaxation of restrictive measures amid the new corona
A woman, wearing a protective face mask, pushes a dolly of containers filled with water, in Caracas, during relaxation of restrictive measures amid the new coronavirus pandemic. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
Jesus Marcanao, 65, fills a container with water he tapped from a street faucet, in his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 13, 2020. Amid water shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, the gove
Jesus Marcanao, 65, fills a container with water he tapped from a street faucet, in his home in Caracas. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
Advertisement
A woman untangles an electrical cord and a hose in order to pump from a large container water provided by a government water truck, in the Petare slum of Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 10, 2020.
A woman untangles an electrical cord and a hose to pump from a large container of water provided by a government water truck, in the Petare area of Caracas. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
A woman wearing a protective face fills bottles with water to take home in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, June 5, 2020. President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela''s opposition, led by Juan Guaido, have agree
An estimated 86 percent of Venezuelans reported unreliable water service, including 11 percent who have none at all, according to an April survey by the nonprofit Venezuelan Observatory of Public Services. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]
A man pushes a stripped down baby stroller with containers he filled with water that he collected from a street faucet, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 20, 2020. Water service in Venezuela has g
A man pushes a stripped-down baby stroller with containers he filled with water that he collected from a street faucet in Caracas. [Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo]


    • About Us
    • Code of Ethics
    • Terms and Conditions
    • EU/EEA Regulatory Notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cookie Preferences
    • Sitemap
    • Work for us
    • Contact Us
    • User Accounts Help
    • Advertise with us
    • Stay Connected
    • Newsletters
    • Channel Finder
    • TV Schedule
    • Podcasts
    • Submit a Tip
    • Al Jazeera Arabic
    • Al Jazeera English
    • Al Jazeera Investigative Unit
    • Al Jazeera Mubasher
    • Al Jazeera Documentary
    • Al Jazeera Balkans
    • AJ+
    • Al Jazeera Centre for Studies
    • Al Jazeera Media Institute
    • Learn Arabic
    • Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights
    • Al Jazeera Forum
    • Al Jazeera Hotel Partners

Follow Al Jazeera English:

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • youtube
  • instagram-colored-outline
  • rss
Al Jazeera Media Network logo
© 2025 Al Jazeera Media Network