“You always have to have a plan B,” assures Valeria Arballo, a geologist who spent ten days supervising drilling in the heart of Montevideo, looking for groundwater to compensate for the severe drought in Uruguay.
• Also read: The drought forces them to drink salt water
Between monuments such as the Obelisk and facilities such as the Centenario Stadium, the soccer temple built in 1930 for the first World Cup in history, imposing machines dig the ground in the heart of Batlle Park, a green enclave of about 60 hectares, the “lungs” of the Uruguayan Capital city.
Photo: AFP
“Due to the water crisis in southern Uruguay, the drilling is taking place in the city of Montevideo,” Ms. Arballo, operations manager of OSE’s groundwater department, told AFP, a public company that supplies drinking water to the whole country.
Two wells have been drilled in the park, 90 and 42 meters deep, and according to the OSE (Obras Sanitarias del Estado), after filtering and treatment, the water found will be suitable for consumption.
Photo: AFP
Water for the capital and its metropolitan area, home to 1.8 million people, comes from surface springs. But with a drought lasting more than three years, believed to be the worst in more than 70 years, OSE became interested in groundwater.
Critical situation
For the past week, tankers carrying 30,000 liters of water have been distributing potable water to health centers and schools while they wait for the wells to come on. The water comes from a treatment plant in the neighboring department of Canelones, about 55 km from Montevideo.
Photo: AFP
The capital’s water usually comes from the Paso Severino reservoir, about 85 km north of it. But reserves have been falling for months: they totaled 4.4 million cubic meters out of a total capacity of 67 million cubic meters as of Wednesday, according to the latest official report. The city uses an average of 550,000 m3 per day.
Photo: AFP
“The situation remains very critical,” warns OSE, which since late April has been mixing fresh water from Paso Severino with water from a river that flows into the Rio de la Plata estuary, making it salty.
Photo: AFP
“It’s very salty and its color is sometimes quite cloudy,” says Marcelo Fernandez, 43, who works at a mall. However, the Ministry of Health is making sure that the water coming out of the taps in the capital is “safe”.
trihalomethanes
This week, the maximum allowable levels for sodium and chlorides were extended to July 20, with the limits having already been exceptionally raised twice. It also approved a temporary increase in trihalomethane (THM), a chemical produced by the use of chlorine to disinfect water that has been shown to cause cancer over time.
“It is absolutely certain that the increase in THMs will not cause any harm to health for 45 days,” said Health Minister Karina Rando on Thursday.
This water crisis “is something that urgently needs to be resolved, especially for people who cannot afford to buy bottled water,” said Romina Maciel, a 33-year-old history student.
Bottled water consumption has skyrocketed in Montevideo and the Canelones department, where a 6.25-liter bottle of water costs around 130 pesos ($3.20). According to a recent study, sales in May increased by 224% compared to the same month last year.
There will be no “significant” precipitation before June 19, according to the Uruguayan Meteorological Institute. “The rain will be a relief,” said Ms Arballo, who nonetheless assures that groundwater extraction work will continue.