The Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE) company began the water transfer after 35 days of work to assemble the 13.5-km-long pipeline that connects Paso Valdez, in the San José department, with the Paso Belastiquí reservoir, in Canelones.

According to OSE, the transfer makes it possible to carry 200,000 cubic meters of raw fresh water a day from the San José River basin to the Santa Lucía River.

This means that “one third of the annual average daily flow of the Aguas Corrientes plant,” which provides drinking water to 50 percent of the Uruguayan population.

The works will make it possible to manage the use of the flow of Paso Severino, the capital’s main reservoir, more efficiently, and alleviate the levels of salts and chlorides in the running water supplied by OSE.

The Uruguayan Government invested 20 million dollars in the project, which was considered to be provisional at the beginning, but now seems permanent.

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