EL PAÍS offers the América Futura section for its daily and global informative contribution on sustainable development. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe here.
Much of Uruguayan society maintains an almost symbiotic relationship with the water that runs through rivers and taps, zealously monitoring its treatment, care and scope. In 2004, the country became a world leader by constitutionally and by popular decision recognizing access to water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. That reform marked a milestone in the history of the country: it consecrated public management and prioritized human consumption and social participation in the management of this resource.
This precedent helps to understand the discomfort caused by the drinking water crisis that currently affects the 1.7 million inhabitants of Montevideo and its metropolitan area, in southern Uruguay. Since the end of April, the tap water they receive temporarily contains twice the sodium stipulated in local regulations and they can drink it as long as they are not within the risk group (hypertensive and pregnant, among others) and tolerate its pronounced salty taste.
The authorities explain that this situation is exceptional and will govern as long as it does not rain enough to recompose the levels of the Paso Severino reservoir, which is located on the Santa Lucia River and supplies 60% of the country's population. That reservoir currently holds 4.5 million cubic meters of water, when its capacity is 65 million. So, without the necessary rains or planned alternatives, the liquid will continue with this atypical composition and flavor that results from the mixture of fresh water from Santa Lucía with salt water from the Río de la Plata. For now, more than 50% of the population of this region has stopped drinking tap water and consumes it bottled, according to the consulting firm Option.
The end of the "culture of abundance"
In the last three years, Uruguay has suffered the ravages of the La Niña weather phenomenon, with a prolonged rainfall deficit and a drought that has wreaked havoc in the countryside and now affects drinking water. "That deficit remained and reached values of extreme drought, especially in the southwest of the country," Madeleine Renom, a doctor in Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, tells América Futuro. According to Renom, between April 2022 and May 2023, 300 millimeters of rain fell in this area when in that period it usually rains 1200 mm. It is the lowest record in 45 years.
Archive image of the Paso Severino reservoir, in the department of Florida (Uruguay). CITY MVD
Daniel Greif, engineer and former director of the first National Water Plan, believes that in the face of these forecasts, Uruguay should move from a culture of the "abundance" of water to a culture of the "variability" of this resource. "That requires infrastructure and management capacity," Greif tells América Futura. It refers to changes in climate, but also to those experienced by local production and which have consequences on the quality and quantity of water. "The Santa Lucía River basin is especially critical and strategic because it supplies drinking water to half of the country's population and is the area of the dairy basin with the highest productive intensity," he says.
The impact of productive activity on the Santa Lucía River was addressed in a manifesto signed by Uruguayan scientists in October 2022. Anticipating this crisis, they recommended accelerating compliance with environmental management measures, prioritizing the use of drinking water for human consumption. They called for intensified effluent control from dairy farms and other industries; take action when agricultural and forest crop intensification is considered; Regulate and control irrigation dams to prevent the proliferation of cyanobacteria and their inoculation into the river system.
"The Santa Lucia River is in a process of deterioration," Daniel Panario, director of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Republic, co-author of this manifesto, tells América Futuro. Panario is a staunch critic of the intensive and extractive production model implemented in Uruguay. He cites as an example the million hectares of soybeans, which brought with it the increase of agrochemicals and waste that pollute the waters, he says. On Saint Lucia in particular, it considers it necessary to take pressure off it, diversifying the sources of drinking water supply. "Until now the process has been reversed: it has been centralized, because that makes it cheaper and easier to handle."
A self-criticism of Mujica
As for the alternatives, engineer Greif is in favor of the execution of the Casupá project, which was handed over by the last government of the center-left Frente Amplio coalition (2015-2020) to the current one headed by Luis Lacalle Pou (center-right). This project consists of the construction of a dam in the upper basin of the Santa Lucía River, which will have a capacity of 118 million cubic meters to supply the metropolitan area. According to Greif, studies on the feasibility of this option began in 2013 and the preparatory process ended in 2019 with the loan granted by CAF, development bank of Latin America for an amount of 80 million dollars. But the Casupá dam remains unfulfilled so far.
Why was this or that initiative not built between 2005 and 2020, under the governments of the Frente Amplio? It is a question that is repeated these days that touch the limits of the water supply. In an impromptu press conference, at the end of May, former President José Mujica (2010-2015) drew a self-criticism in this regard: "Always, when we talk about the budget, we are pulling a blanket for one side and for the other and everyone disputes it and sometimes we err in the priorities and we trust each other. I think we should have faced this water thing much earlier."
The Casupá project remains in the pipeline and this June would be the deadline to sign the loan contract with CAF. However, the current Government has given priority to the Neptune project also called Arazatí, a new water treatment plant. President Lacalle Pou defined in November 2022 that project as "the largest investment in this area in the last 150 years" that would allow drinking water "without prejudice to droughts or technical failures." Within the framework of this project, the Government has tendered among private capital the construction of the plant in the department of San José (south of the country), which would take water from the Río de la Plata and supply 33% of what is required by the metropolitan area. The works are scheduled to start at the end of 2023.
Criticism of Neptune and the exhortation of scientists
The National Commission in Defense of Water and Life, promoter of the 2004 reform, understands that Neptune is unconstitutional because it "enables private water management," when the law establishes that this must be public and with social participation. "The Constitution of the Republic is clear and does not admit interpretations," they say. For its part, the group of researchers that integrates Panario ensures that the project "presents a series of environmental problems" and that the salinity of the water of the Río de la Plata "far exceeds the acceptable values to be purified".
Criticizing it, the Government continues with the Neptune tender, while the state company OSE (State Sanitary Works) rushes repairs in the old pipe system, where losses of up to 40% of drinking water are estimated. The media, for their part, disseminate campaigns on the responsible use of this resource and follow minute by minute the forecasts of climate vagaries. Everything indicates that La Niña has come to an end and rainfall is announced, rather scarce for this first week of June. "The (long-term) projections indicate that droughts will be more frequent, although less intense and shorter," warns meteorologist Renom.
Faced with the emergency and encouraging State policies, scientists and researchers urge the Government to work together: "The management of watersheds, water resources and drinking water supply in the south of the country is an emergency of such magnitude and complexity that it requires an interdisciplinary analysis by a large team of researchers and technicians from institutions linked to the subject." Whether the invitation ultimately succeeds remains to be seen.