The water crisis continues to worsen in Uruguay and, in particular, in the metropolitan area where it is already water emergency: to the reservation of Severine Pass it only has 1.87% of its capacity left and Montevideo It is 1,255,226 cubic meters from running out of water available for consumption.
The metropolitan area consumes 506,775 cubic meters of water daily, even in a context in which each drop seems to be sacred, despite being saltier than usual. In Paso Severino, the reservoir that supplies running waters, the plant through which the National Administration of State Sanitary Works (OSE) distributes water to the main urban departments of the country —Montevideo, cannelloni and Saint Joseph- just over twice that amount remains.
The truth is that the days of drinkable water are numbered for the area, even mixing the few available reserves with water from the Silver river and distributing a supply with higher levels of sodium and chlorides than usual. However, once the flow from the Santa Lucia River runs out —an alarming scenario predicted for within a week, approximately—, the liquid that reaches homes will no longer be drinkable, and will only be suitable for sanitary use due to high salinity.
They begin to deliver bottled water to retirees
Meanwhile, the capital of the country is already preparing to face a critical context that seems inevitable given the lack of rain necessary to counteract the constant drop in reserves in Paso Severino. In this sense, starting tomorrow 90,000 retirees and pensioners Those who earn the minimum will receive a set of money for the purchase of bottled water, as reported by the National Organization of Associations of Retirees and Pensioners of Uruguay (Onajpu).
The game will be 850 pesos per monthequivalent to the purchase of two liters of water daily. The beneficiaries do not have to do any paperwork, and the deposit of that money will be automatic, starting this Tuesday, along with the collection of retirement or pension —although it will be credited in a separate receipt. The benefit also applies to those who receive old-age assistance from Ministry of Social Development (Mides).
For the government, this initiative will cost 12 million dollars that it will obtain “from the resources of multilateral credit organizations and donations”, as well as “the contributions that non-state public persons can make” without these weakening the function for which they were created.
Works that arrive late
The government promised to build a dam in the san jose riverplus a series of 13 and a half kilometer pipes that will carry water to belastiqui to later supply the Aguas Corrientes plant, with the aim of keeping the dying reserves of Paso Severino afloat. according to the president Luis Lacalle Pou, the works will be ready in 30 days; however, and according to the resolution of the OSE board of directors, the construction companies in charge of the works —Espina, Cujó, Teyma, Stiller, Ciemsa and Saceem— They agreed on a period of two months.
In either of the two cases, the reality is that the works are late if the metropolitan area can run out of water in just seven days. On this, the cost of 40 million dollars for the construction of this new temporary reservoir seems excessive in a context in which public spending is imprisoned by lower income caused by the drought.
The situation takes a more serious turn if, in addition, it is taken into account that the works are not definitive solutions and that, once the water deficit is overcome, they must be destroyed: “They are made of earth, without coils or material that makes them durable” , he pointed Edgardo Ortuno, director of OSE representing the Broad front.
Source: Ambito
