The capital, the department of Canelones and the metropolitan area are under a water emergency while meteorologists continue to forecast no rain on the near future.

President Luis Lacalle Pou acknowledged on Thursday that if it doesn’t rain in the coming weeks, there will be a period during which the tap water provided by Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE) “will not be drinkable”.

Currently the product that OSE delivers through pipes is drinkable but not potable, as defined by the Ministry of Environment.

“We are trying to manage as best we can the reserves we have and doing a work that is going to take 30 days. The immediate question is: how many days of drinking water are left and how long will the work take? If it doesn’t rain, there will be a period during which the water will not be drinkable,” the president said.

Lacalle Pou added that this water is used for washing, bathing and sanitation, but not for drinking.

He admitted that in the short term the water crisis has no possible “fundamental solutions”. “It has to rain,” he emphasized.

Most of the population is consuming bottled water and the governor recalled that half a million inhabitants in the metropolitan area will receive two liters of this product daily.

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