The president of the Union of State Plumbing Workers (OSE) told the press that the executive branch does not want to spend resources, “but the big work is being done by the state.”
He confirmed that the Paso Severino reservoir, the capital’s main source of supply, flows through less than two million cubic meters of water, although its capacity reaches 67 million.
Faced with this situation, OSE mixes the water of the Santa Lucía River with that of the Río de la Plata, brackish, and increasingly from this last source, to maintain supplies.
Assuring that there are state responsibilities in the current crisis, Kreimerman said the current government’s “big mistake” was “playing with the rain,” despite drought warnings from the Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology.
“In October there is a first indication that it was known because agriculture received a tax exemption due to the water deficit. The farm was being served, not the people,” he emphasized.
He stressed that in a country known for its groundwater reserves, 60 percent of the population now has no access to drinking water and “it could get worse”.
Referring to the quality of the water, he criticized the fact that the population had been informed “before a fait accompli” and claimed that every time OSE applied to the Ministry of Health for permission to increase the salinity, it had in fact already increased.
ro/ool