Water crisis worsens in Uruguay; water is not suitable

in the middle a water crisis which has put most of Uruguay’s population at risk, two academics explain why water with high levels of chlorine and sodium distributed since last April is “undrinkable” and why its main sources are “at risk” for years.

“Uruguay is the first country to include water as a human right in its magna carta, in the Constitution of the Republic,” he says. agronomist Anahit Aharonian, who points out that this has been the case since 2004, when the norm was changed by a plebiscite supported by 64.6% of citizens.

Member The National Commission for the Defense of Water and Life was established in 2002reminds Aharonian that this turning point occurred in a context where, for example, the so-called “water war” was taking place in Bolivia, and privatization plans were progressing in Uruguay.

Understanding water as “necessary for life”, this is provided for in Article 47 of the Constitution “access to drinking water and sanitary conditions are fundamental human rights”, something for which, according to the engineer, her request to keep these resources in public hands and to “manage them in a participatory manner” was key.

But, he points out, this is “repeatedly violated by various measures” such as the 2017 irrigation law that “facilitates privatization” and only the 2013 episode in which “the water came out with a bad taste and smell” led to meetings of basin commissions made up of researchers .

Especially in the Santa Lucía River, which supplies the capital and thus 60% of the population, the statement of experts “for 10 years” is that “water sources are at risk” due to uncontrolled spills of industrial and agrochemicals.

Aharonian emphasizes that the measures approved there, although insufficient, “have not been fulfilled” and, in light of the water crisis declared on June 19, he appreciates that the population has at least begun to open their eyes to the “long-standing” problem.

Neither drinkable nor safe
In a context where doubts abound as to whether the water is drinkable in the capital of Uruguay, civil engineer Danilo Ríos, who was the general director of the state waterworks State sanitary works (OSE) between 2006 and 2015, the answer is clear.

It is, he says, that potable water is defined by the decree as “water suitable for human consumption that does not pose a health hazard throughout the lifetime of the consumer or that does not cause rejection in the consumer”, and in addition, World Health Organization (WHO) designates “safe” water as long as it does not cause “short-term or long-term” health risks.

The water is currently not drinkable and unsafe because it does not meet the potability standard, and also because it has a concentration of trihalomethanes above the norm, and they are a pollutant with a chronic effect, he notes.

Of these last compounds, which he recently spoke about in a lecture at the University of the Republic, he explains that they are “volatile organic products that are not found in natural waters”, because they are created by disinfecting water with chlorine.

Although, he notes, OSE already controlled trihalomethane levels, he explains that they increased with the mix of salt and fresh water that was applied as a result of the drought “because the water from the Río de la Plata has bromides that promote the formation of trihalomethanes.” .

So, although, according to Uruguayan Minister of Public Health, Karina Rando, their presence could only affect health if consumed “for tens of years”, as Ríos water with high levels cannot be safe.

In addition, notes the engineer, the term “potable”, which Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou used publicly, “does not exist in the bibliography as something scientific and technical”.

“It’s not a drought, it’s a robbery”
With phrases like “It’s not a drought, it’s a robbery” or “Let’s not get used to bottled water” that are present in various mobilizations, Aharonian sees positively the action of young people who join the demands and expresses the belief that it will be possible to stop project neptunewhich promotes the participation of private parties in the extraction of water from the Río de la Plata, which, according to experts, is “the sewer of the region”.

“Bad management, lack of interest, irresponsibility in all of this has been going on for decades and that is the biggest concern, that there is no contextualization, to see what is happening in the region”, he also launches, who says that the drought is even related to the damaged Brazilian Amazon, “very important for continental evapotranspiration”.

Although the rains seem to be easing the situation in the main basin, the alert remains.

“It just rained, great, but not everything can be solved by rain alone, if measures are not taken we will be in the same situation again,” concluded the agronomist.