On his return from the Summit of the mercosurPresident Luis Lacalle Pou will have to face this Wednesday a key meeting with authorities of the Ministry of Environmentof the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and of SBI to analyze the situation of the water emergency in Montevideo and the metropolitan area due to the alarming loss of water reserves in the Severino Pass dam.
After his arrival in the country, the head of state assured at a press conference that The meeting will seek to “evaluate and accelerate” the work carried out to build the Casupá stream dam (Florida). Along these lines, he indicated that they are “hurrying up the works and trying to continue looking for alternative sources.”
After being asked if the works would last one month or two months, the president assured that based on the information provided by OSE, these would be concluded in approximately a month.
Regarding the questions referring to excessive salinity in the water supply from the triggering of the chloride and sodium values recorded in the pumping lines of Paso Severino, Lacalle Pou limited himself to saying that “tomorrow there will be no definitions” about itbut that “as soon as there is a change we will notify something”.
Along these lines, he stated that “when it happens”, in reference to a potential scenario where the MSP does not recommend drinking OSE water to the population and access to bottled water must be expanded, “we are going to take other measures and we will to announce, so far this is not the case”.
The pumping lines of Paso Severino yielded alarming records
According to the daily averages recorded at the Paso Severino dam, the chloride and sodium levels jumped again in all the pumping lines that supply the capital and its surroundings. While MSP established as maximum values allowed 720 mg/l of chloride and 440 mg/l of sodiumthese were again widely exceeded.
The Minister of Public Health, Karina Randoassured in a press conference that “water has not changed its characteristics” with respect to three weeks ago, when the precautions for drinking OSE water were reported, according to the risk group to which the person belongs.
However, Rando assured that, from the recent increases in salinity in the water, he does not have answers to give regarding what the next step to be followed by the portfolio will be.
The doctor assures that OSE told her that the increase in chlorides and sodium would be of a “transitory” nature, but that if not, the conditions should be changed and new recommendations given to the population.
Source: Ambito
