Following a meeting Thursday with opposition leaders, Uruguay President Luis Lacalle Pou addressed the ongoing water crisis that has been plaguing the country since 2022, saying there are “no magic solutions” and that rationing is the only solution for the moment.

“If it doesn’t rain soon, water will be undrinkable for a while,” said Lacalle Pou to the media, adding that bottle water will continue to be handed out, but also stressing that, for the time being, careful management of existing reserves is all that can be done. 

“There are no magic solutions, only the one we took recently,” said Lacalle Pou, in reference to the Arazatí Project, a work of infrastructure launched in 2022 intended to guarantee a steady supply of drinking water regardless of droughts or technical failures. A new reservoir is also under construction, and should be operational in the coming months.

“There’s no genie we can call out of a lamp, it has to rain.”

The water deficit is the worst Uruguay has suffered in 74 years, according to officials. Low rainfall and high temperatures across the southern region of South America have triggered a severe drought over the last year, affecting crops in neighboring grain producer Argentina and triggering steep farm losses.

Rising tensions in Uruguay

At the Canelon Grande Reservoir, a major source of water for Uruguay’s thirsty capital Montevideo, water levels have been so low for so long that grass now covers much of what used to be a lake.

“It’s bleak,” local Mario del Pino said, standing in the middle of the reservoir, surrounded by weeds and cracked dirt.

“Water used to cover everything you can see.”

The crisis is pushing frustrated residents to depend on bottled water.

Low rainfall has forced water authorities to use water from a saltier part of the Santa Lucia river, which supplies most of Uruguay’s drinking water, leaving tap water undrinkable for many.

“It’s horrible. You can’t drink it,” said teacher Adrian Dias, who buys two or three 6.5 liter (1.7 gallon) bottles of water every two weeks. “My wife has hypertension, so it’s impossible for her to drink this water for the amount of salt it has.”

Anger over water shortages has incited multiple protests on the streets of the capital. At state-owned water utility OSE, graffiti says “there is no drought, just looting.”

“There’s water, but it’s in private hands,” reads a banner hanging outside OSE.

Federico Kreimerman, an OSE union leader, said agribusiness was partially to blame for Uruguay’s water woes, explaining water from the Santa Lucia River is siphoned off to private reservoirs for irrigation.

“The share of water for human consumption is tiny,” Kreimerman said. “Agribusiness entrepreneurs dam the river and use it for themselves.”

Earlier this month, Uruguay’s government declared a water emergency, exempting taxes on bottled water and ordering the construction of a new reservoir.

The government is also distributing drinking water to vulnerable groups like schools, nursing homes and hospitals, said Gerardo Amarilla, undersecretary at Uruguay’s environment ministry.

“The issue is real,” said musician Frank Lampariello, after stocking up on bottled water at a supermarket in Solymar, on Montevideo’s outskirts. “It’s complicated, especially, for the lower classes.”

-Herald/Reuters