“Agribusiness entrepreneurs dam the river and use it for themselves.” “The share of water for human consumption is tiny,” Mr Kreimerman told Reuters news agency. However, locals have already been forced to turn to bottled water after the state-owned water company, Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE), began mixing salty water with fresh water to stretch supplies in June.įederico Kreimerman, an OSE union leader, said agribusiness was partially to blame for Uruguay’s water woes, explaining water from the Santa Lucia River is syphoned off to private reservoirs for irrigation. Uruguay is the only country in Latin America to have achieved quasi-universal access to safe drinking water – meaning almost everyone has easy access to water free from contamination – after enshrining access to water as a fundamental right in a 2005 constitutional amendment. The state’s water company has begun drilling wells in the centre of the capital to reach the water beneath the ground, while protests have erupted over shortages. Officials announced that reserves are at 1.8 per cent of their capacity. It follows a multi-year drought and high temperatures which have drained the city’s reservoirs. The government has told locals in Montevideo, a metropolis of more than 1.3 million people, that they have seven to ten days of drinking water left. Uruguay’s capital is days away from running out of drinking water amid the nation’s worst drought in 74 years.
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