WATER POLITICS

Uruguay’s government is now subsidizing bottled water in the capital Montevideo and neighboring cities as a three-year drought has triggered the South American country’s worst drinking water crisis in at least half a century.

“This is a drought where it rained 60% less than it should have rained in a year,” Uruguay President Luis Lacalle Pou said in recorded comments Thursday, noting water quality could decline further if the drought drags on. 

Officials are warning pregnant women and people suffering from some chronic illnesses to avoid drinking the tap water, according to Public Health Minister Karina Rando. The government announced Wednesday it would boost welfare payments for pregnant women, young children and the sick for 30 days so they can buy two liters of bottled water a day. The city government is taking similar action.

State-run media reported bottled water sales have tripled in recent days. Public water company OSE says it has enough reserves of drinking water to supply the capital through May with rainfall the only near-term solution.

“We want to buy time for it to rain,” OSE Chariman Raul Montero told a local radio station. “When it rains a lot, I’ve seen enough water flow in four or five days to supply Montevideo for a year.”

Unpalatable drinking water is fast becoming a public health crisis and political headache for the administration of Lacalle Pou. The Montevideo metropolitan area is home to more than half of the country’s 3.5 million people. Small groups of protesters gathered outside government offices in downtown Montevideo this week to voice their discontent.

Montero said in late April the company is mixing brackish water from the Rio de la Plata river with its dwindling supplies of fresh water from the Santa Lucia River basin, giving the tap water in Montevideo an unpleasant, salty taste.