Groundwater is the solution to the water crisis in Uruguay

Montevideo, May 19 (Prensa Latina) The use and management of groundwater can be part of the solution to the water crisis in Uruguay, particularly in Montevideo and its metropolitan area, said here today an expert on the subject.

• May 19, 2023
• Published by: Ana Luisa Brown

Paula Collazo, PhD in Geological Sciences, addressed the subject in a television appearance and defined the aquifer as a geological formation capable of storing water in significant volumes and that man has the capacity to use.

She said that between 65 and 70 percent of Uruguay’s territory has fractured aquifers, ‘which do not form a very productive one’.

She explained that the Raigon aquifer, in the south, which feeds part of the Montevideo area, is overexploited.

She warned that in some areas there are hundreds of arsenic levels, which emphasizes the importance of hydrogeological research.

However, the expert said that the management of groundwater in Montevideo and its metropolitan area could solve the supply of the vital liquid in critical areas, and the quality of the water currently distributed by the state-owned Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE).

Due to the persistent drought and the low flow of the Santa Lucía river, which supplies the capital, OSE began to mix water obtained from further downstream, linked to the estuary of the La Plata River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

This raised the levels of chlorides and sodium in the water that comes out of the faucet in this city, whose quality the Minister of the Environment, Robert Bouvier, described as ‘not potable’, but ‘drinkable’.

At the same time, the Public Health Minister, Karina Rando, urged pregnant women, babies and people suffering from various ailments to drink bottled water.

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