The initiative will finance access to drinking water for 500,000 vulnerable people in the metropolitan area, for US$12 million per month.
Vote today in the Parliament the bill creating the Water Emergency Fundwhich will seek to “deal with an extraordinary emergency” initiated by the extreme water crisis that affects the metropolitan area of Uruguay.
“Nobody knows its end and we have to be very serious when facing it,” said the nationalist senate sebastian da silva a Underlined, when he reported on the parliamentary agenda for today, which includes the treatment and vote on the project for the creation of the Water Emergency Fund.
The initiative was announced by the Minister of Economy and Finance (MEF), Azucena Arbeleche, last week; and it is a tool through which 12 million dollars a month will be made available to ensure access to two liters of bottled water for more than 500,000 people in a situation of vulnerability when you run out of drinking water Montevideo, Cannelloni and Saint Joseph.
“All expenses related to this situation of water crisis will be made through the fund,” Arbeleche said at the time. The universe reached includes 420,000 beneficiaries of the Ministry of Social Development (Mides) and extends to children under two years of age and pregnant women who receive family allowances through the Equity Plan. The money items for bottled water will also be received by users of the Uruguay Social Card (TUS) who are not included in the allowances, and older people in the metropolitan area who receive old-age assistance.
Also, since yesterday, 90,000 retirees and pensioners who receive minimal inactivity began to charge 850 pesos a month to guarantee access to two liters of water per day.
Lacalle Pou meets with OSE authorities
In parallel to the parliamentary activity, President Luis Lacalle Pou meets with the authorities of the National Administration of State Sanitary Works (OSE) and the ministries of Atmosphere and Public Health (MSP) 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.
During the meeting, they will look for “evaluate and accelerate” the work carried out to build the dam of the Casupá stream (Florida); as well as consider additional measures to face the critical context that exists in the departments affected by the water crisis, where the salinity in the OSE supply is increasingly high while the drinking water reserves are close to running out.
Source: Ambito
