The director of the Office of Planning and Budget (OPP), Isaac Alfie, ruled out that the government is going to grant discounts on the rates of SBI before the water emergency in Montevideo and the metropolitan area, and said that now what the population has to do is “save water”.
“We have to think things through reasonable and rational“, argued Alfie, who participated in the last days of the meetings in Torre Ejecutiva to address the water problem.
Asked about the possibility of lowering rates –at least in the areas affected by the increase in salt and chloride levels–, the director of the OPP indicated that that makes no sense”.
“If the price drops, the most likely thing is that the use will become more intensive and the situation will worsen”he opined.
“What you have to do now is save water. Saving water means saving water in general, not just what one drinks. You can’t save that, you have to save on the rest,” he added.
And he said that, although he did not have the figure, a “very high percentage of the water” produced by OSE “is not drunk” and is “used for other purposes.”
Alfie assured that, in the face of the water crisis, the government preferred to guarantee free access to drinking water for the most vulnerable sectors, while for the rest it is committed to a price reduction with the tax exemption for bottled water announced by the president Luis Lacalle Pou.
“It seems a much more appropriate response than encouraging the use of water“, he defended.
Regarding the tax exemption – which was approved this Wednesday in Parliament – Alfie said that he believes that the “collective conscience” will do its job and consequently that will be transferred to the final price.
“Let’s hope that this is transferred and that it really reaches the consumer,” he estimated.
