MONTEVIDEO, June 8 (Prensa Latina) The company Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE) is working to prevent water shortages in this capital and the metropolitan area, its chief executive Arturo Castagnino said today. The official said in a TV interview that given the severe drought the country is experiencing, water reserves are being constantly monitored.
Castagnino confirmed that the Santa Lucía River, which feeds the San Severino reservoir, the main source of supply, is providing greater flow, apparently due to runoff from the previous week’s rains.
OSE avoids water outages, among other things, to maintain the service, to ensure the hygiene of the network, to avoid outages and to prevent fires.
He pointed out that it is a changing scenario and a mobile forecast, but it is a constant cause for concern.
However, he added that we are preparing for the worst and for this reason we are drilling wells in different parts of the capital and in the department of Canelones, as well as carrying out additional works on the Santa Lucía and San José rivers, its main tributary.
In his speech, he stressed that most of the public hospitals in the capital draw water from wells and are supplied by tankers.
He added that OSE had made a national application for transports of this type, but clarified that they had to be certified to transport water.
The manager assured that in the capital the consumption of the vital fluid has decreased, which he pleaded for public awareness, although he acknowledged that OSE had lowered the water pressure in some neighborhoods to avoid ruptures and fix the existing ones.
He pointed out that there were two projects on the table to solve the current crisis. One of these is the construction of the Casupá Dam to provide raw water reserves for ongoing operations.
And that of Arazatí, which is considering a water treatment plant to supply Montevideo and that the city is not tied to a single source of supply.
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