The sale of bottled water tripled year-on-year so far in May, driven by the water crisis that affects all of Uruguay but, mainly, in the metropolitan area; and by the increase in the salinity of the liquid distributed by the National Administration of State Sanitary Works (OSE).
The data comes from a study of the company scanntech, who worked on the number of tickets that include bottled water in Montevideo and Cannelloni. In this sense, they discovered that the number of tickets that include this product doubled in May, and that consumers assigned a 30% more budget for the purchase of water as a measure to avoid the increase of sodium and chloride in OSE water, on the one hand; but also to reduce the consumption of running drinking water in a context in which the country’s reserves are at historically low levels.
The report also indicates that sales whose only product was bottled water doubled. While the comparison with the consumption of May 2022 registered an increase that reached triple the level of water purchase from a year ago.
Likewise, the greatest growth occurs in bottles without gas, which increased by 368% from 2022 to this year; and in drums, with an increase of 235%.
On the other hand, the greatest increase in sales was recorded in the municipalities north of the capital: in D, the increase was 311% compared to the same day of the previous year, while in A and G, it was 295% each.
Supplier companies work 100%
Meanwhile, the main water supply companiesboth natural and mineralized, they work at 100% of their production to cover the exponential increase in demand without stock breaks occurring in local businesses.
Logistics is also in full swing to be able to supply the population, such as at the peak of the summer season, when the consumption peaks of this product. However, the majority of people cannot find water to buy in the usual shops in the area and they have to visit several.
From the Federation of Beverage Workers (Foeb) They told Underlined that they work double shifts and with practically no days off to be able to replace the consumption of the population that made OSE water with bottled water.
The situation is corroborated by the merchants, who account for a logic of advance reservation of drums to ensure personal supply.
Source: Ambito
