From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Drought leaves millions in Uruguay without tap water fit for drinking   
   by Martín Tocar, 15 Jul 2023, Guardian   
   More than half of Uruguay’s 3.5 million citizens are without access to tap   
   water fit for drinking, and experts say the situation could continue for   
   months.   
      
   Some had predicted the crisis years ago when pointing out the vulnerability of   
   the single reservoir supplying water to the metropolitan area around the   
   capital, Montevideo.   
      
   By Latin American standards, Uruguay is a high-income country and it has   
   historically thought of itself as having abundant water resources. Those who   
   warned of diminishing supplies were considered catastrophists and investment   
   was postponed.   
      
   Three consecutive years of drought have almost emptied the reservoir of fresh   
   water, and to avoid shortages the state-run water supplier, OSE, has since the   
   beginning of the year been gradually adding brackish water from the Rio de la   
   Plata estuary.   
      
   By early May the mix had reached the maximum levels of sodium and chlorides   
   recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and now it has double   
   those levels, giving the water a repulsive taste and raising questions about   
   potential effects on health.   
      
   Authorities maintain that the chemicals only affect the taste and smell of the   
   water and do not necessarily pose a risk to most people’s health.   
      
   Some vulnerable groups such as babies, pregnant women and people with health   
   conditions have been warned against drinking the water but there have been   
   conflicting claims about its safety for the broader population.   
      
   Álvaro Mombrú, the dean of the chemistry faculty at the Universidad de la   
   República, said he would not recommend its consumption at present, while his   
   colleague Arturo Briva, the dean of the medicine faculty, said the water was   
   still considered safe    
   but warned that “as levels rise and time of exposure increases, some   
   repercussions may appear”.   
      
   Experts have advised taking shorter showers, and there have been increased   
   reports of damage to water heaters.   
      
   A poll in May found that roughly half of people in the area affected had   
   reduced their consumption of tap water and 35% had stopped drinking it   
   completely.   
      
   The government has exempted bottled water from taxes and announced it would   
   provide free bottled water to more than 500,000 people.   
      
   Mario Bidegain, a meteorologist, said calculating the amount of rain needed to   
   bring the situation back to normal was a difficult task. If there are heavy   
   rains as expected by early September, authorities will still have to decide   
   whether to reduce the    
   sodium and chloride levels back to normal or keep some kind of mix to preserve   
   supplies in case the drought continues. “We will probably come out of this   
   slowly,” Bidegain said.   
      
   Many Uruguayans say the centre-right administration of President Luis Lacalle   
   Pou, which was praised domestically and abroad for its management of the   
   Covid-19 pandemic, has been too slow in its response to this crisis, and too   
   reliant on the hope of    
   autumn rains.   
      
   The government says previous administrations, including the leftwing Broad   
   Front coalition that governed from 2005 to 2020, did not invest adequately in   
   water infrastructure.   
      
   Before the crisis, Lacalle Pou’s administration had announced a $210m   
   project to take safe drinking water out of the Rio de la Plata, leaving aside   
   another project that had been designed but not started by the previous   
   government.   
      
   José Mujica, the president between 2010 and 2015, has acknowledged some   
   responsibility. “We all fell asleep,” he said when asked about the crisis.   
      
   Adrián Peña, a former environment minister under Lacalle Pou, said all   
   political parties were responsible for not prioritising investment in water   
   management.   
      
   “Whenever anyone raised these issues … the response was: this has never   
   happened,” he said.   
      
   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/15/drought-leaves-mil   
   ions-in-uruguay-without-tap-water-fit-for-drinking   
      
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