Global Courant
The drinking water crisis in Uruguay increases the anxiety of the Government of that country – which, due to the seriousness of the issue, has already taken over reports that previously depended on the mayor’s office – and of more than half of the Uruguayans who live in the Uruguayan capital and two months ago they lived with “salty” water coming out of the tap.
Due to three years of uninterrupted drought, freshwater reserves are at their historical minimum: 1.8%. Although OSE, the state company that provides the service throughout the country, tells Clarín that “there are no dates”, the fact that there is no official deadline does not change the “dry” forecast.
The day when running water can no longer be consumed is getting closer.
With no significant rain in sight to end the problem, they are working around the clock looking for alternatives.
OSE confirmed to this newspaper that pipes are arriving from Brazil by route for a work that has already begun, it will take a total of four weeks “depending on when the pipes arrive” and it would end up being a new source of “totally fresh” water.
The almost dry dam and the rains that do not arrive. Photo: Xinhua.
Today, the one that comes out of the tap is suitable for consumption because the maximum limits of sodium and chloride (which contributes the salty taste) have been raised, by resorting to a mixture of three flows in order to maintain the service. This can change.
According to the official report, there are barely 1.1 million cubic centimeters of water in the Paso Severino dam, the main freshwater source in the metropolitan area, and 80,000 are used daily. From the Uruguayan newspaper El País they calculated that it will end “in a week or 10 days.”
OSE does not confirm that estimate. “The behavior of water is dynamic, although the complexity of the situation is recognized. But there is no set day,” they explain to Clarín.
The Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, had warned that a period was coming in which the water would not be drinkable. Unless it rained enough or the waterworks that began in Paso Belastiquí to bring fresh water from the San José River to the Santa Lucía are finished.
That will not solve the situation because the water will still contain sodium and chloride, but at least it will serve to contain the crisis for a period, one could say, “of grace”.
works in progress
The works for these works are being carried out according to the expected times, as explained by OSE. The novelty now is that 1,000 meters of pipes have already arrived from Brazil, which are key to finishing them.
The only option to not drink salt water is the bottled one. Photo: Juano Tesone
This work will allow the entry and exit of water from the Río de la Plata to the Belastiquí-Aguas Corrientes reservoir, as well as the retention of water entering the reservoir, which will serve to maintain the volume and not lose water with the fluctuation of the tides. .
Meanwhile, the Campanario dam, which is under construction, consists of a dam on the San José River that will have the purpose of damming the greatest amount of fresh water from its channel.
What then will be the source of “fully fresh” water? With more pipes coming from Brazil, progress is being made on the 13-kilometre-long work for the collection and transfer from the San José River to the Santa Lucía River. Straight.
This will mean that there is no need to resort to the Río de la Plata for supplies, as is the case now, despite the high percentages of salt it contains.
When it is finished, within a month, the water in Montevideo and the rest of the metropolitan area will be the same as before, with the classic levels of sodium and chlorides, that is, with its classic sweet taste.
According to the Presidency, the average chloride present in the water from OSE in Montevideo is 845, 837 and 842 mg/l in pumping lines 4, 5 and 6 respectively. The maximum chloride level authorized by the Ministry of Public Health, following the request for an increase by OSE, is 720 mg/l, therefore all lines today exceed the limit.
Regarding sodium, an average of 501, 497 and 499 mg/l was registered in the 4, 5 and 6 respectively. The authorized maximum is 440 mg/l, so also in this case, there are excesses.
According to the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet), no rain is forecast for the area in the short term. “We have positive rain anomalies in the spring. This would suggest that recurrent heavy rains will start in September,” climate director Mario Bidegain said.
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