The rains give Uruguayans a break, but they do not solve the water crisis in the country

The rains that fell during the last days on Uruguay allowed to alleviate to a certain degree the water crisis caused by the most severe drought recorded in the last 70 years in the small South American country.

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This has allowed the reserve levels of the Paso Severino reservoir, the most important in the Uruguayan capital, to exceed 6.5 million cubic meters, according to the latest report by Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE) and the Ministry of Public Health. .

At the most critical moment of the drought, the reservoir levels were below 6% of their total capacity.

Due to the lack of rain, the Uruguayan authorities had to divert the waters of the Santa Lucía River, the mouth of the La Plata River, to supply the reservoir. The high levels of contamination, in addition to the differences in the composition of said waters, caused homes in the capital to have a supply of stinking and strange-tasting water, according to reports from the residents themselves.

According to what the agronomist Anahit Aharonian told EFE, however, this “has been violated over and over again through different measures” like the irrigation law of 2017, which “facilitates privatization”, and just an episode from 2013 in which “water came out with a bad taste and bad smell”motivated that basin commissions that integrate researchers meet.

“The water is no longer drinkable, it has a lot of salt, a lot of sodium”, the meteorologist Cisneros commented to this newspaper on July 7.

In a new conversation held this Monday, the expert assured that although “we are still far from normal levels”, the situation has improved and “Sodium levels are not as high because less water began to be taken from the mouth of the La Plata river. That is, the water is more drinkable”.

Since May, the population of Montevideo has tripled its demand for bottled water in order to cope with the water crisis that the Uruguayan capital is going through. (DANTE FERNANDEZ / AFP /)

“Do not forget that this is a temporary solution. We are going through a winter season, water consumption is much lower than in hot seasons. For now there is no rain forecast for the next few days but rather high temperatures in the near days. You have to be very attentive to how the levels of the Santa Lucía River evolve”, warns Cisneros.

The rainy season is expected to start only in September in Uruguay, so it is expected that after this brief rainy season the crisis will worsen.

The reasons behind the historic drought facing the South American country are diverse. Among the main ones are global warming, the La Niña phenomenon and population growth that has caused an increase in the demand for the resource.

However, a sector of the population also claims that the crisis is aggravated by a lack of control towards different industries such as livestock, agriculture and forestry.

Water protest in Uruguay

Protestors say multinationals & big industries like forestry, pulp mills, soybeans, water bottling companies are using large amounts of water, while Uruguay is suffering a severe drought.

Water so scarce in Montevideo, salt water has been added to tap water pic.twitter.com/VAE7eQFLCr

—Grace Livingstone (@GraceLiv) July 17, 2023

On this last point, the editorial published this Monday by the influential British newspaper The Guardian places special emphasis, where it is criticized, for example, that in 2019 more than 50 times the amount of water destined for the supply of drinking water was used for the production of rice, wood pulp, soybeans and meat for export.

For the moment, the reaction of the government of Luis Lacalle Pou has been mainly oriented towards solutions with immediate effect. For example, it was decided to exempt bottled water from all taxes to lower costs after demand for the product tripled in the Uruguayan capital.

In this regard, a UN special envoy prepared a report that was published last Thursday where he criticizes the government for encouraging measures so that the population . The words were not well received at the Estévez Palace, leading representatives of the government and the supranational body to meet at the end of last week to smooth things over.

The pending task, however, will be to set a course for a situation that promises to only get worse as time goes on.

“This should serve to make forecasts for the future. A reservoir is already being built from the San José river to the Santa Lucía river, it is a short-term measure but it will benefit something. In addition, I hope that the authorities are already managing other dams to avoid a situation as catastrophic as the one we experienced a few days ago.”, says Cisneros.

Source: Elcomercio