Opinion | My City Has Run Out of Fresh Water. Will Your City Be Next?

Introduction

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — For at least 80 days, ever since drought and mismanagement sapped the drinking water supply of my country’s capital, the water that has come out of our taps has tasted terribly of salt and smelled awfully of chemicals. Those of us who can afford bottled water use it for everything. We cook pasta, wash lettuce and make coffee with it, buying more and more plastic water containers that wind up in the dump. When we shower, we keep it short and keep the windows open, because trihalomethane compounds in the steam may be carcinogenic. Washing machines don’t foam, and the electric water heaters are failing from a buildup of sodium. Dishwashers leave salty streaks on glasses and plates. Brushing your teeth tastes like taking a gulp of pool water.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

1. Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

The Severity of the Crisis

At the height of the crisis, sodium and chloride levels rose to double and triple the maximum values allowed by our national drinking water regulations. A few weeks ago, I visited a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, where people had no other option than to drink the tap water. People complained of belly pain and diarrhea. The government warned that children under 2 years of age, pregnant women and people with high blood pressure, kidney failure or heart problems should limit their consumption of the water or, in some cases, avoid it altogether. Supposedly, poor people will now be getting a subsidy to buy bottled water. But that’s not enough.

Uruguay’s Water Resources

Here in Uruguay, clean water is part of our national identity. Schoolchildren are taught that the country is blessed with abundant and high-quality water, thanks to many large rivers and six great aquifers. For most of our history, we could count on rain to fill these rivers and aquifers. And in 2004, we became the first country in the world to write access to safe drinking water into the Constitution.

Impact on Montevideo

The Santa Lucía River, which provided a steady flow of fresh water to the capital for more than 150 years, has almost disappeared for some stretches. In February, a reservoir that until recently contained up to five billion gallons of water was sucked nearly dry. Another dwindled, at one point, to just 2 percent of capacity. As the sweet waters from Santa Lucía have emptied, the salty water from the Río de la Plata, an Atlantic Ocean estuary, has intruded into its riverbed. Our main water purification plant doesn’t have the technology to remove the salt, so it enters our pipes, our homes, our bodies.

Similar Water Crises Worldwide

The 2023 U.N. World Water Development Report shows that one in four people lacks access to clean water. “We cannot claim surprise at the next drought,” Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights and drinking water, told me. “No matter how strong and long it may be,” he said, “there must be alternative, complementary, supplementary sources,” and there must be a plan to “establish priorities during the emergency.”

Impact on Agriculture and Industries

It’s not just our health that’s at risk. The agricultural sector, which is the largest industry in the country, has suffered losses of about 2 percent of Uruguay’s G.D.P. Six in 10 of our companies are now facing production issues. Pharma, food, construction, chemical industries — all of them are in a scramble for water, leaving their employees as anxious at work as they are at home.

Causes and Delayed Response

How did we get here? Over the past four decades, the nation allowed the agricultural and mining industries to pollute the Santa Lucía and interrupt its natural cycles, damaging the supply that continued to dwindle over three years with little rain. And despite obvious population and economic growth, our country did not invest in drinking water reservoirs, even when the problem started to come into view. Since March 2020, the government declared several emergencies for agricultural producers, granting tax waivers and grace periods. But it waited until June 19 of this year to declare an emergency for the rest of the population.

Immediate Measures and Future Plans

Now it’s left to scramble. The government is trying to build reservoirs in tributaries and is planning a plant to desalinate water from the Río de la Plata, but that is unlikely to come online in the next three years. The public water company recently started operating new wells in the heart of the city, hoping to load tanker trucks with water from an aquifer and distribute it to hospitals. Many of my neighbors are drilling, too, hoping to find groundwater for their families. One of them showed me the results of the water quality test. They are scary. My neighbor’s well contained a bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is associated with blood, lung and urinary tract infections. It’s too late for us to engineer our way out on our own.

Conclusion

Over the past two weeks, it rained three inches, and that helped, for the moment. But local weather forecasts, global climate change and irresponsible land use are all pointing us in the same direction. It’s not just Montevideo: Every city in the world needs to start prioritizing its drinking water now, while there’s still half a chance for better outcomes. Water is our most precious resource. Keeping it safe and available must be our first priority. Enough is enough.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. SDGs Addressed in the Article

   • SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
   • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
   • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

2. Specific Targets Based on the Article’s Content

   • SDG 6.1: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.
   • SDG 6.4: By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity.
   • SDG 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.
   • SDG 12.4: By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water, and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.

3. Indicators Mentioned or Implied in the Article

   • Levels of sodium and chloride in the drinking water supply (indicator for SDG 6.1)
   • Impact of water scarcity on agricultural production (indicator for SDG 6.4)
   • Presence of trihalomethane compounds in steam (indicator for SDG 12.4)
   • Losses in GDP due to water scarcity (indicator for SDG 6.4)

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: nytimes.com

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