This Wednesday, a light rain has sown hope among Uruguayans because of reduced flow from the Paso Severino dam, the main source of fresh water for Uruguay’s most populous area, which authorities say could soon run out of “potable water”. .

That became known in these days Montevideo would be without drinking water for the next 10 days for which reason it is experiencing the worst water crisis in its history.

The Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology (Inumet) recorded rain in recent hours in the Santa Lucía basin and in the Paso Severino dam, in the city of Florida and the Aguas Corrientes area, in Canelones, where the water treatment plant is located. , which supplies water to the city of Montevideo and the metropolitan area.

President Luis Lacalle Pou, who declared a water emergency ten days ago to facilitate action, noted this week that there is no immediate solution.

Under the measures taken by the Uruguayan government, they have removed VAT on mineral water; In addition, more than 500,000 people living in the metropolitan area will receive money to buy two liters of bottled water a day and the construction of a temporary dam in the San José River area was announced, which would be built in 30 days, but from the companies reported that it would take about two months.

“We are trying to manage the reserves we have as best we can and are carrying out a work that will take 30 days,” he told reporters, referring to the planned dam on the San Jose River.

The acute drought that has plagued Uruguay for more than three years has reduced Paso Severino’s reserves to historically low levels: as of June 28, only 1,652,547 m3 remained, 2.4% of its total capacity.

Many people come to see the condition of the reservoir on the Santa Lucía Chico River, which is located about 90 km north of Montevideo and which supplies the capital and its environs, which is home to some 1.8 million people.

Almost 1 million cubic meters of a total capacity of 67 million remains in the dam, and although the rains were expected because they have been fundamental for months, it was not enough to reverse the drinking water crisis, because before that it rained for several days on a queue.

A plaque commemorates the inauguration date of the dam: October 30, 1987. It was then that the surrounding land was flooded. Today, the fall of the water is so pronounced that submerged bridges appeared for more than three decades.

“It resists drying out,” says Gustavo Aguiar, a resident of the area, pointing out that “was a huge mirror of water.”

The Paso Severino Reservoir had an area of ​​1,487 hectares when the dam was in operation above 36 meters, according to data from Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE), the state-owned drinking water company in Uruguay.

There have been droughts before, but none like this one, says Julio Sánchez, a 78-year-old retired farmer who is part of a group of local historians.

“Today I went through Canelón Grande and it’s really scary,” he says of a nearby reservoir that supplied water to Montevideo and emptied in March. “The whole society needs to realize that we are facing a huge problem.”

“Not drinkable”

For two months now, to alleviate the lack of rainfall, OSE has been mixing Paso Severino’s water with another water from near the Río de la Plata, more brackish because it comes from the estuary.

This forced a temporary increase in the maximum allowable levels of chloride and sodium for OSE water, in effect until July 20. According to the latest daily report, those levels in a pump line in the metropolitan area were higher than allowed.

“If it doesn’t rain, there will be a period when the water is not drinkable,” he stressed, although he clarified that the OSE water can be used for “washing”, “bathing” and “sanitation”.