Since May, the tap water received by the 1.7 million inhabitants of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and its metropolitan area has contained more than double the amount of sodium permitted by local regulations.
Authorities have described the situation in the city as exceptional, but they say this will continue until there is enough rainfall to replenish the stricken Paso Severino reservoir, which supplies 60 percent of the country’s population.
Uruguay is currently experiencing one of its worst water crises ever recorded, following three years of extremely low rainfall that have reduced freshwater reserves to historic lows.
To address a dramatic shortfall, the Uruguayan government has resorted to extreme measures, using saltwater from the La Plata River to supplement freshwater supply from the Santa Lucía River, on which the Paso Severino is located, 75 kilometers north of Montevideo. This has raised levels of sodium and chlorides in the supply, and drawn criticism from experts and figures across the political spectrum, due to the potential health risks of this increased salinity.
The official response to the crisis has also been met with demonstrations by citizens and trade unions, while national demand for bottled water has grown significantly, leaving authorities scrambling for viable solutions to ensure a supply of drinking water.
Various experts consulted by Diálogo Chino said that Uruguay’s water deficit — the most serious in the last 50 years — is unlikely to be a temporary phenomenon that will be solved by increasing rainfall, with climate change and record-breaking drought the deeper causes of the problem.
In a recent open letter, the Uruguayan Association of Limnology (the study of inland waters) reported that problems related to declining freshwater quality and quantity “have increased in frequency and magnitude in the last decade.” The intense drought, associated with the presence of the La Niña weather phenomenon since 2020, the association said, “conditioned the collapse of water reserves for human consumption” in the capital city of Montevideo and the metropolitan area.
The president of the association, Franco Teixeira de Mello, described the drought as exacerbating water problems in terms of quantity, but that climate change has done so in terms of quality. He said the situation does not result from an isolated event: “We have to be prepared because it is not something circumstantial.”
“The water crisis is the result of the lack of implementation of environmental policies linked to...
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