The environment minister, Robert Bouviersaid this Thursday morning that the ose waterto which the salinity was increased, “is not drinkable”, but “it is drinkable and consumable”.
This is how the chief explained it: “Water is not drinkable in the perfect definition of potability. What we say is drinkable and consumable. If we go to obviously technical points and others. Water is not drinkable and is consumable,” he said to Telemundo (Channel 12) and referred to the Minister of Public Health, Karina Rando, in this explanation.
The civil engineer –Hydraulic and Sanitary option– Danilo Ríos, who also worked for 32 years at OSE where he became general manager of the entity, told El Observador two days ago that technically the water that is coming out of the taps is not drinkable., although that does not imply that it is harmful to health. For water to be drinkable, it must meet the parameters established by the National Bromatological RegulationRios explained.
This regulation says that the maximum sodium values admitted are 200 milligrams per liter and now the salinity is 400, that is, double. In turn, the Regulation admits up to 250 mg/l of chloride and now the water has 700 mg/l.
Rando noted that the values ”do not affect health.” “Sodium and chlorine are values that in our country are recommended up to a certain value, but not precisely because they affect healthbut because they actually affect the so-called organoleptic conditions: that is, the taste, smell or color that the water can have,” he declared.
Even though he National Bromatological Regulation prohibits the distribution and consumption of non-potable water to the population, provides that the distribution of water that does not comply with the established values can be authorized “as an exception” “if no pathogenic microorganisms are detected.”
