translated from Spanish: President of Essal: “We will pay the appropriate compensation”

Guillermo Pickering, president of essal, responsible for the massive water outage in Osorno since July 11, referred to the crisis caused by his company, offers apologies and ensures that compensation suffered respond. In an interview with El Mercurio, the manager says he has been “dedicated body and soul during this week to try to coordinate efforts to support Essal’s management to replenish service.” On the origin of the crisis, Pickering stated that “it is important to understand that this phenomenon was enormous, because when oil enters the filters and ponds, the plant is rendered unusable and must be restored,” he said, adding that “just by way of example, to replenishing the plant’s filters took up 140 tons of material and more than 500 people have worked.” The president of the company acknowledged that in the attempt to try to restore the service “errors and inaccuracies could have been made”, adding that “for that, and because of the affectation and inconvenience that this caused in the lives of the people of Osorno, I want humbly apologise on Essal’s behalf.” These apologies, the lawyer says, will be translated “in a number of things, including the corresponding compensation,” anticipating that the affected clients will not be charged for more than two months and that they will accept the mediation raised by the Sernac, to prevent class actions. Who is also president of Aguas Andinas , controller of Essal, further explained that they will not seek to “shy away from responsibilities”, so “we will put all our willingness and the best will to find the fairest solution for natural people and regarding companies in the area that also account for economic losses. Finally, and on the investigation carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, he stated that “the company is making more background available to the prosecutor who conducts the investigation. The company collaborated, collaborated and will continue to collaborate, but it is in that area that the reasons or the way in which this oil spill occurred in the plant have to be explained,” he said. According to Pickering, as they have argued from the beginning, the source of the crisis occurred “by human error, that is the information I have until the minute.”

Original source in Spanish