“They’re going to make me angry, but we all fell asleep”

2023-07-04 23:10:43

In a press conference, the former president of Uruguay Jose Mujica addressed the complex situation in Montevideo and the metropolitan area due to the lack of wateracknowledging that all the latest heads of state share responsibility for the situation.

“They’re going to make me angry, (but) we all fell asleep. Let’s share the responsibility,” said Pepe.

Referring to the fiscal deficit, Mujica mentioned that there was a project and financing for the construction of a dam in Casupá, but what was discarded due to concerns about the fiscal deficit. Instead, the construction of a plant on Arazatí beach in San José was prioritized to obtain water from the Río de la Plata as an alternative source.

“Oh, the blessed fiscal deficit. The project and the financing were ready, but it made the fiscal deficit jump upand we could have made Casupá on time”

Mujica also highlighted the strategic error of relying solely on the Santa Lucía river as a source of water and supported the idea that OSE’s water should be free, given the conditions of the resource. He recognized that action should have been taken before and expressed the need to speed up actions to address the current situation.

In this way, Mujica agreed with the statements of the leader of the Cabildo Abierto party, Guido Manini Ríos, who harshly criticized the last governments for the drinking water crisis, accusing the authorities of negligence and lack of foresight.

Manini pointed out that the necessary measures were not taken on time and that the responsibility falls on both the current government and the previous administrations of the Broad Front. He recalled that since 2010 the need to build a dam in Casupá had been raised and mentioned the warnings made in 2015 by the then Defense Minister, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro. He lamented that previous rains have made the urgency of addressing the Santa Lucia River situation forgotten.

Water in Uruguay could run out in 10 days

The Government of Uruguay reported this Tuesday that its drinking water reserves they are at 1.8% and? could be finished within 10 dayswhich forces them to resort to the Río de la Plata for supplies, despite the high percentages of salt it contains.

According to the official report, there are 1.1 million cubic centimeters of water in the Paso Severino dam, the main source of fresh water for the metropolitan area, of which 80,000 are used daily.

President, Luis Lacalle Pouhe had already warned that a period was coming in which the water would not be drinkable, unless it rained enough, or until the completion of some water works that are being carried out in Paso Belastiquí to bring fresh water from the San José River to the Santa Lucia.

Although this will not solve the situation because the water will continue to contain sodium and chloride, it will at least serve to nourish the flow of water from OSE, the area’s state company, for a period of time.

The works for this work are being carried out according to the expected times, according to the Uruguayan newspaper El País, which reported on the recent arrival of 500 meters of pipes from Brazil and another 500 more that will arrive today and that are key to finishing the job.

The work will allow the entry and exit of water from the Río de la Plata to the Belastiquí-Aguas Corrientes reservoir, as well as the retention of water entering the reservoir, which will serve to maintain the volume and not lose water with the fluctuation of the tides.

Meanwhile, the Campanario dam, which is under construction, consists of a dam on the San José River that will have the purpose of damming the greatest amount of fresh water from its channel.

And progress is also being made in the work for the collection and transfer from the San José River to the Santa Lucía River.

The Government estimates that the work will be finished within a months and assures that the times depend on the arrival of the pipes from Brazil.

After declaring a water emergency in the Montevideo metropolitan area, where more than half the population lives, the government announced last month the creation of a Water Emergency Fund to “guarantee citizens with all the necessary resources” to face the drought.

According to the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet), no rain is forecast for the area in the short term. “We have positive rain anomalies in the spring. This would suggest that recurrent heavy rains will start in September,” climate director Mario Bidegain said.

DB

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