The Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, assured this Tuesday at a press conference from the Executive Tower that The country is going through the “worst water deficit” for 74 years, when it began to be recorded. “There is no precedent in Uruguay of a similar situation“, he stressed regarding the crisis of water supply by SBI that affects, above all, Montevideo and the metropolitan area.
Leonardo Carreno
The Minister of Social Development, Martín Lema
Delgado led the conference together with the ministers Martin Motto (Social development), Karina Rando (Public Health) and Robert Bouvier (Atmosphere). This occurred after a meeting that began at five in the afternoon and also included the ministries of Economy and Finance and Transportation, as well as OSE authorities and the president of the Mayors Congress, Fernando Echeverría (Flores).
“We are taking steps to maintain the current level of water supply until the rains arrive“, assured the Secretary of the Presidency after the meeting.
And he announced that a dam to “ensure the stability of Paso Severino” and thus “maintain the status and level of water” that exists today in the metropolitan area, including the capital, which is going through the most compromised situation in the country in terms of distribution.
In addition, Delgado announced that it was agreed between the OSE and the Congress of Mayors that the departmental governments help repair the breaks in the pipes throughout the country. This will be put to the consideration of the Congress of Mayors in the next few hours.
“Tariff” incentives for households that make responsible use of water are also being analyzed, although it did not detail how this measure will be implemented. And, on the other hand, Delgado announced that the government will monitor the prices of bottled water.
“We are stabilizing the reserve systemWe are not talking about deadlines. We are going to ensure the supply of water to the people in the current quality. So that it is drinkable, that it can be cooked, sanitized and that there is sanitation,” said the Secretary of the Presidency and in this way banished that there is a reserve level that only reaches for the next 18 days, as the president of OSE had declared. , Raúl Montero, this Monday.
“The 18 days referred to one of the reserves (by Paso Severino). With what we implemented this week we are stabilizing the reserve,” Delgado said, although he did not specify at what level the reserves are or for how many days they will last if it does not rain.
On the other hand, the government gave the green light for OSE to acquire a “desalination plant” designed by the Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC) that will be “operational as of next week”, in addition to starting to use a “reverse osmosis” in Punta del Tigre that will also serve to “desalinate.
Delgado also said that “an OSE bagging plant was set up” to make sachets of water, supplied from the areas or from the water treatment plants that were built in recent years, such as in Kiyú (San José), as well as in the Argentine Spa or La Floresta, both in Canelones, and Pan de Azúcar (Maldonado).
Regarding the prices of bottled water, the Secretary of the Presidency assured that the government “will monitor” the values, because “there are situations that do not fit.” “The demand is increasing,” he said, announcing that the possibility of “importing water” if necessary is also being analyzed.
“The most important thing is to give peace of mind to the population,” he said. “The supply to the entire population will be maintained until the rains come to change the contingency,” he assured. Although he recognized that the current sensory conditions of the water that is being supplied in the capital and the metropolitan area are not entirely drinkable, it is “suitable for human consumption.”
Neptune’s defense: an “inexhaustible source”
Delgado began the conference by highlighting the investment that the government plans to carry out the so-called neptune projectwhich according to the Secretary of the Presidency, will be key so that “this type of situation never happens again.”
“This government, regardless of the circumstances it had to face, almost a year and a half ago it began to work on fundamental solutions to problems that are not new but that had not been solved. I am not going to go back on what that could have been done. Now we are working on today and tomorrow,” he said.
“This government has been working on an alternative project for the supply of an inexhaustible source of drinking water such as Arazatí for the metropolitan area,” he said, noting that it is a “necessary work.”
“It is key to ensure that this type of situation never happens again,” he stressed. The work has an estimated cost of US$ 260 million and involves building a new water treatment plant in the Arazatí area (in San José) that will take raw water from the Río de la Plata. In addition to the plant, a pumping station and a new 80-kilometre pipeline will be built to connect with the Montevideo system. The project was presented by a consortium of private companies, made up of Saceem, Berkes, Ciemsa and Fast.
One of the particularities of this project is that the investment and risk are borne by the private sector (something that is better seen in the economic team than taking on debt) and OSE, which will be in charge of the operation, will pay you a fixed fee of around US$41 million per year for 18 years. The consortium that wins the tender – Aguas de Montevideo will have a 12% advantage – will be in charge of the design, construction, financing and maintenance of the infrastructure.
The government has already announced that on June 6 the envelopes will be opened to analyze the proposals that were submitted for bidding.
