CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – A collapsing water system is prompting families in wealthy enclaves of Venezuela’s capital to drill illegal wells so they can flush and wash without thinking twice.
Anger is growing as the water system crumbles along with the socialist-run economy.
In just one Tony Caracas neighborhood, a group of neighbors hired a firm to drill a water well next to their apartment building early this year. At least three more buildings on the tree-lined street have since hired the same engineer.
But it’s a solution far out of reach for Caracas’ hillside slums, where poor residents instead are taking to the streets in protest.
Venezuela’s meltdown has been accelerating, prompting masses of people to abandon the nation in frustration at food shortages, street violence, rampant blackouts – and now sputtering faucets.
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