Lots of water for the booze fest, but dont water your plants

By David Young

The location of Panama’s Carnival has finally been settled. 

It will be in Via España, to the despair of local residents and the relief of those in other areas who have given it a strong thumbs down, even gone to court.

The  farcical confusion mounted over the weekend with the Tourism Authority saying that the Carnival Committee and its self appointed president, did not exist, although the two sides had talked.
Tourism said that a decision would be made on February 1 less than two weeks before the bachanallian noise booze and sex fest was set to begin.

 Meanwhile, those responsible for security and the allocating of resources like temporary toilets announced that two weeks was not enough time to set up a new location, so the decision was out of the hands of Tourism. Or was it?
The foregone conclusion was announced on Monday by  the head of Tourism on Monday confirming the location chosen by the non-existent committee.
There is a famous nursery rhyme about the Grand Old Duke of York who had 10,000 men. He marched them up to the top of the hill, and marched them down again.
So the carnival that no one wants in their backyard is on. No news at this moment about the mass distribution of condoms as in previous years.
President Martinelli had said the Carnival would get no government money. Then came the flip flop and $200,000 was allocated, to be spent, according to the Tourism czar on local musicians who will be facing a parsimonious distribution.
Another problem that was addressed on Monday is water. Carnivals across the country celebrate by pouring thousands of gallons of potable water on bottle waving dancers. It’s called mojadera.
The shower water comes from tankers provided by the water and sewer authority, IDAAN, that has recently warned citizens that they face the potential of water rationing, with fines for excessive use, like using a hose pipe as a broom on the driveway.
IDAAN has warned it would "take immediate and firm measures “against those who open fire hydrants to be used as additional sources for mojadera.”
If the authority identifies the “anomaly”, it will close the circuit of pipes for several hours in the area, according to water chief Rodrigo Barragan,

Barragan said in a press release, that the opening of hydrants happen during every carnival, but that this year "we hope to have the support of the security forces to control the illegal opening.”.

There are apparently no current punishment regulations but , " we are studying the existing legal mechanisms to establish fines for breaches of the acts”
In the meantime IDAAN called on residential and business customers to refrain from watering the garden every day.

"They can do it on alternate and at night when watering plants is more efficient," said Barragan.
All that is left is the question of cleaning up the garbage after four days of roistering.
That’s the province of Mayor Bosco. Wouldn’t it have been helpful to have some of the extra trucks that could have been bought with money spent on his Christmas folly and the subsequent repairs?
Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, would have loved it all.