House commission opens investigation into Corosal water crisis after residents describe months‑long outages

The Commission of Development for the House of Representatives’ central region opened a public view on April 7, 2026 to consider a resolution ordering an exhaustive investigation into chronic potable water distribution failures in the municipality of Corosal.

Community members and a residents’ commission told lawmakers they have endured repeated, prolonged outages for decades and urged immediate mitigation and better communication. Armando García Zapata, reading a written ponencia on behalf of the Commission of Agua Potable para Corosal, said the problem has lasted "more than 20 years" and that the community had assembled a 30‑year file documenting repeated failures, missed maintenance and inadequate tanker logistics.

Viviana Miranda, vice‑president of the community commission, urged lawmakers to treat access to potable water as a human right and pressed for short‑term measures. "Esto no es un favor; el Estado tiene la responsabilidad y la obligación de garantizar servicios esenciales," she said, adding that she personally spent 63 days without water in 2025 and 25 days so far in 2026.

Lawmakers used the hearing to press the Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (Triple A) for data and concrete steps. Luis Reinaldo González Delgado, president executive of Triple A, said the authority has completed a new urban distribution tank and several repairs to valves and pumps, and described a longer‑term project to rehabilitate the Negros intake (represa) and the filtration plant. He reported the represa project at roughly 64% physical progress and said the authority projects starting construction on the major plant reconstruction in the third quarter of 2026, with a multi‑year completion horizon.

Triple A officials emphasized technical constraints: heavy rain events increase turbidity that can force temporary plant shutdowns, and unreliable electrical service in the area requires the use of emergency generators. Luis Josué Ortiz Salgado, vice president of operations, said the authority is operating generators at night at critical sites and coordinating with the island’s power distributor (LUMA) to reduce interruptions.

On immediate mitigation, Triple A described a layered tanker strategy: staging large tankers for transfer to smaller 2,000‑gallon trucks that can navigate rural roads, and establishing "oasis" points where residents may refill cisterns. Ortiz Salgado gave figures showing 965 tanker deliveries to Corosal in 2025 at a reported cost of $829,000 and 48 deliveries so far in 2026 for $47,490.

Representatives and community members repeatedly asked for more direct communication from Triple A about outages and for organized tanker routes that prioritize health centers, elderly or immobile residents, schools and medical facilities. The commission said it will request detailed outage statistics (days, hours, affected sectors) from Triple A and arrange an ocular visit to Corosal’s intake, filtration plant and represa to verify progress and logistics.

The commission’s record also includes references to prior municipal and federal actions: community testimony cited a multi‑million allocation announced after litigation in another municipality and asked whether similar remedies could be applied in Corosal. Triple A told the commission that current capital projects carry financing from federal disaster‑recovery and mitigation sources and from the authority’s capital program.

The commission closed the morning session at 1:30 p.m., excused absent members and scheduled follow‑up steps that include delivery of the authority’s project documentation, coordination of a communication channel between community leaders and Triple A, and a planned site visit.

Authorities and next steps named during the hearing will be included in the commission’s investigation record.

(Reporting from the April 7, 2026 Commission of Development, central region, House of Representatives.)