2023-07-21 05:01:00
The Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, assured this Thursday that his country cannot “cry victory” in the face of the water crisis that is going through the entire territory, especially in the departments of Montevideo and Canelones, although he appreciated the slight improvement in the main reservoirs. Uruguay lives with a prolonged drought that has led in recent months to the virtual depletion of fresh water from the main reserve that supplies the capital.
“We are in a complex situation, we cannot claim victory, it has to rain. Today we have better records than we had a while ago and this is going to continue, according to forecasts, but the battle is not over, not even close,” Lacalle Pou told the press upon his arrival in the country after participating in the summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
The Uruguayan president pointed out that he made “some joke” with his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernández, who days ago assured that in Montevideo “they open the faucets and the water does not come out.” Lacalle Pou said that he ruled out “bad intention” by the Argentine president in that comment and that he was sure “out of ignorance, simply.”
On July 4, the Argentine government offered Uruguay a series of water supplies to alleviate the water crisis it is going through. He did so through a note sent to the Foreign Ministry in which he highlighted the possibility of making a mobile water treatment plant available and sending an Argentine Navy ship with a 300-ton water capacity tanker. Lacalle Pou thanked the gesture although he clarified that the help offered was “insignificant”.
water emergency
The water reserves of the Paso Severino reservoir, the main reserve that supplies Montevideo, where some 1.7 million people live, continue to increase due to the rainfall in recent days. The latest report from the presidency details that until this Saturday the figure increased from 1,500,000 cubic meters to more than 8,200,000, although it is still far from the 67,000,000 that were registered in November 2022 and for which the Uruguayan government decreed a water emergency.
The Santa Lucía River and the Río de la Plata are today the two main sources of water reaching the departments of Montevideo and Canelones through the Aguas Corrientes water treatment plant. The arrival of water from these two rivers led to an increase in sodium and chloride in the water that comes out of the taps, something that was authorized by the Ministry of Public Health in April.
On June 19, the Uruguayan government decreed a water emergency in the metropolitan area. And at the end of 2022, an agricultural emergency was decreed for livestock, dairy, horticulture, fruit growing and agriculture due to a prolonged drought.
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