A closer look at Ecuador and the city of Guayaquil where our leak repair teams are hard at work despite the current full lockdown and curfew…

With more than 500 cases of coronavirus in the country, the Ecuadorian government declared a nationwide state of emergency on 16 March, imposing a full lockdown, travel restrictions and a strict curfew between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Shock information campaigns were also organised to raise public awareness.

Interagua (Veolia), which is tasked with guaranteeing the city of Guayaquil’s continuous drinking water supply, required SADE to be more operational than ever on its 2 drinking water and wastewater treatment maintenance contracts.

So SADE Ecuador got organised to meet its customer’s expectations both effectively and safely. 

Its initial decisions involved assigning administrative staff, including HR and accounting, to remote work and sending vulnerable operational staff home.

Teams were then mobilised to provide urgent services:

• on site: 1 works engineer, 1 works supervisor, 1 HSE officer, 5 worksite managers, and 10 repair teams.
• in the office to receive work SOs and handle follow-up, plans and invoicing: 1 supervision manager, 3 admin staff (inputting SOs into the system), 1 CAD designer;
• in the store, purchasing department and workshop: 6 staff. 

Multiple machines were then assigned to these tasks: 6 3T flatbed trucks, 5 vans, 4 diggers, 5 light vehicles, and 4 tipper trucks.

A specific organisation was also put in place to guarantee the teams’ safety: hiring of 2 minibuses to transfer employees every morning and evening, identification of a supplier for meals due to the closure of the usual sites, purchasing of masks, regular disinfection of vehicles, working with a doctor to check on-site staff temperatures every morning and evening.

And finally, passes were issued to the teams to grant them 24/7 access.

There are a few remaining issues, particularly how to procure backfill, concrete and asphalt materials for ground repairs. These should be sorted over the next few days in conjunction with Guayaquil City Hall, which is looking into requisitioning a quarry to meet these needs.