The Presidency of the Republic published a new report on the water crisis, in which it is noted that the Paso Severino dam lowered its reserves to just over 1 million cubic meters of water, out of a total capacity of 70 million.
That is to say, that of the total amount of water that can be stored, there is 1.7% available.
According to the report of this July 3, the reserves are at 1,173,573, while the total consumption of Montevideo and the metropolitan area is at 504,073 cubic meters per day.
Currently, due to the drought –which has been dragging on for three years– and the deficit in water reserves, Paso Severino is providing 150,000 cubic meters of water for the capital and the metropolitan area, while the rest is obtained from other sources, whose increased salinity led to increased salt and chloride levels in the water.
Regarding the latter, in the daily average of this July 3, both the chloride and sodium levels were above what was exceptionally allowed by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) in three pumping lines of the Aguas Corrientes plant that supplies Montevideo and the metropolitan area.
The MSP exceptionally increased the limit for chlorides from 250 to 720 mg/l and for sodium from 200 to 440 mg/l.
