REALITIES OF THE CRISIS! Barter in Caracas: food for water.

Men of different ages wait seated on the stairs of the Altos de Lídice neighborhood, in the Libertador municipality of Caracas, waiting for their turn to load water tobos. 
The neighbors, especially women, elderly and people with reduced mobility, pay these citizens to raise the water from a stream that is almost a kilometer away, because they have more than seven months without service in that sector . In the absence of cash, payment methods vary according to the capacity of each family.
Mariana Montilla, 64 years old, when she has cash paid between BsS 1 (Bs 100,000) and BsS 2 (Bs 200,000), but most of the time they exchange food for water. One kilo of rice and lentil are equivalent to four trips with two tobos. The same service is also canceled with half a carton of eggs or two packages of pasta, beans or butter.
This barter system was implemented so that citizens could benefit from each other.
Waterloader in Altos de Lídice | Photo: José Daniel Ramos (El Nacional We


Waterloaders consider this daily routine as a source of indirect employment that arose because they did not have the support of a stable job. Before, they were only dedicated to lowering the garbage of the residents because the urban cleaning does not reach Altos de Lídice.

 "One day people started asking for the favor of raising water, in addition to lowering the accumulated waste. They started paying for both services. The crisis, which we thought would be momentary, continued and they left it as a "fixed" job, explained Aura Sarmiento, a neighbor of the sector.
Since then, people have a "trusted loader", whom they frequently occupy for errands. Meanwhile, in the General Cemetery of the South, Mr. Argenis Sánchez works as a gravedigger, although in his spare time he goes up water through the steep streets of the Santa Eduviges neighborhood of Santa Rosalía parish in Caracas in exchange for money or food. Up to 30 trips per day, depending on the distance you have to travel.
 This would be equivalent, if you take as a reference the payment in Altos de Lídice, BsS 30 (Bs 3,000,000) per day or 15 packages of food per day. At the time of these interviews, the minimum integral monthly salary was BsS 51.96 (Bs 5,196,000).

"I go up with a tobo in each hand. The first days I had trouble and the next day I woke up with muscle pains in my legs and arms, but I got used to it, "Sánchez said. He added that some people trust him and give him his debit cards to buy food in nearby places. "I'll take the ticket with the amount so they can see what I spent with their cards." At first, Sánchez did not intend to have this informal employment as an "extra profit"; he did it only to help the community and as a need, because he also must carry water every day for his house.
 "This water that arrives is a blessing that came to us from heaven, but we should not be in this.

I go up and down every time. When it rains the water gets dirty because it mixes with the one on the highway; then we can not load it. " The Dato In the report of the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Confictivity (OVCS) of the month of July it was determined that the failures in the water supply, continuous cuts of the electric service and irregularities in the distribution of the domestic gas affect the daily life of the families and the development of economic, educational activities, health and recreation services.



nota: El Nacional