Traffic chaos  for second day running on most-used highway

For the second day in a row, on Sunday vehicular chaos once again hit drivers who use the Arraiján – La Chorrera highway to travel to the capital city, after residents of the neighborhoods Arboledas, Quintas del Pacífico, Mar Azul, Villa Nazaret, Brisa Mar, Puerto Caimito and Progreso de La Chorrera sectors ll completely close the road from the early hours of Sunday, April 2, in demand for the sectorization of the drinking water service announced by the Institute of National Aqueducts and Sewers (Idaan) during the week.

Saturday it was working on the Pan-American highway at the height of Loma Cová that caused a huge roadblock that lasted approximately four hours and Sunday, for the second day in a row, free transit on the most used highway in the country was once again affected.

Some drivers confessed to TVN to being on the verge of collapse due to the constant street closures reported daily in West Panama.

On this occasion, those affected claim to have had no drinking water service for seven days.

The Traffic Police diverted traffic to the Pan-American highway.

In addition to the lack of water, residents are also annoyed by the constant blackouts and voltage reduction that they suffer with the electric power service on a daily basis, without anyone giving real answers and solutions to the problem.

The director of Idaan de La Chorrera, Marta Albarracín, attended the protest site, saying that the sectorization could not be eliminated until the work being carried out to improve the supply of drinking water in the area is completed. She said that with the sectorization they have been able to determine that there are closed valves within some Arboleda’s clusters, which is being corrected.

She said that this is a test stage, and it will continue until April 9 because it will give good results.

On Friday, residents of the neighborhoods that make up sector 2 of the Idaan sectorization, closed the highway at the entrance to Arboledas in the afternoon, generating a huge traffic jam.