The Uruguayan government announced yesterday Wednesday that it is proceeding with the lifting of the state of emergency that it declared two months ago due to drought in the capital and its surroundings, in order to ensure the supply of drinking water to the population.

Recent rains have allowed the amount of water in the reservoirs that supply the Montevideo metropolitan area to rise, the executive order lifting the state of emergency explained.

About 1.8 million people live in the metropolitan area of ​​the capital, more than half of the country’s population (3.5 million).

“Today, we can see (…) that the water quality is very good, and I predict that in the coming days we will have a very good supply of water,” President Louis Lacaille Pou assured a journalist.

In recent months, the worst water shortage in more than 70 years has threatened drinking water supplies in the capital and its suburbs. The Paso Severino reservoir, the main one for the capital’s water supply, was almost empty.

To increase scarce supplies, Obras Sanitarias del Estado (OSE), the public water utility, decided at the end of April to mix water from this reservoir with quantities from a river that flows into the Río de la Plata and is slightly saline.

The water running from the taps in the capital then contained up to 440 milligrams of sodium per liter and up to 720 milligrams of chloride per liter, amounts well above the permitted levels (200 and 250 milligrams per liter respectively). Citizens turned to bottled water en masse.

According to the most recent official data, on August 22 the reservoir in Passo Severino now had 36.6 million cubic meters of water, while its total capacity is 67 million.