In the midst of the water emergency that Uruguay is going through due to the lack of water, one of the Directors of the National Administration of State Sanitation Works (OSE – Drinking water and sanitation of Uruguay), Edgardo Ortuno, warned that the devastating panorama could have been avoided if the infrastructure works were carried out. The country only has “one million cubic meters (m3) of potable water left,” he said.
The picture is complex: Uruguay has barely 1% of potable water left that is suitable for drinking. The neighboring country is only 1,255,326 cubic meters away from running out of water for consumption, as the reserves of Paso Severino, the main source of fresh water for the most populated area, are depleted.
Ortuño explained that this situation is due to “a historic drop in the water reserves of Paso Severino”. “The drought that has hit Uruguay is one of the biggest in the last 40 years,” he assured in dialogue with am750, and pointed to a series of “wrong policies” and lack of works that the Government of Luis Lacalle Pou.
In addition, the director of the OSE warned that the depletion of freshwater reserves is “imminent” and that since May the liquid is considered “non-drinkable” due to high chloride and sodium levels.
Why is there a lack of water in Uruguay?
However, the head of OSE pointed to the government of Lacalle For for having carried out State definancing policies that facilitated the drought due to the lack of rain that should be alleviated in the next semester, producing an extreme drop.
“Despite the weather, this is a consequence of wrong policies that have been applied to reduce our State and the capacities of our public company OSEwhich has had a cut of 200 million dollars in investments and the project left by Tabare Vazquez to Lacalle Pouwhat was it build a dam on the Casupá Stream, precisely anticipating this situation”indicated.
“The serious thing is that in October of last year the government decreed an agricultural emergency due to the drought, that is to say that for the countryside, measures were adopted due to the drought and until May nothing was done for this situation“, he denounced.
“There is water left for 10 days, in these conditions, maybe a little lessafter which we will have water that will not be drinkable, and this is having a very serious social consequence, which is that people have to resort to stores and supermarkets to buy bottled water,” he concluded.
When could it rain in Uruguay?
The Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet) forecasts for this Tuesday, July 4, isolated rainfall and a low probability of storms for the afternoon-night, with cloudy skies and a minimum temperature of 14 degrees, while the maximum will be around 23 degrees.
On the other hand, for this Wednesday the conditions for the rains to arrive are descending towards the evening, reaching less than a 70% probability.
However, relief could arrive on Thursday the 6th, since in the morning an 80% probability of strong to moderate storms is forecast in the region, with a minimum temperature of 13 degrees and a humidity of 99%.
