RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As a historic drought enters its 13th year, Chile announced on April 11 an unprecedented plan to ration water for the capital, Santiago, a city of 6 million people.
“A city cannot live without water,” Claudio Orrego, governor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, told a press conference.
“And we are in an unprecedented situation in Santiago’s 491-year history where we have to prepare for not enough water for all of us who live here,” he added.
The plan features a four-level alert system that goes from green to red and begins with public service announcements, moves to restricting water pressure, and ends with rotating outages of up to 24 hours for approximately 1.7 million customers.
The alert system is based on the capacity of the Maipo and Mapocho rivers, which supply the capital with most of its water and have seen their water levels decline as the drought progresses.
Since this problem began, the government estimates that the country’s water availability has been reduced by between 10% and 37% and could fall by another 50% in the north and center of the country by 2060.
The water deficit of the rivers, measured in liters per second, will determine whether cuts will be made every twelve, six, or four days.
“This is the first time in history that Santiago has a water rationing plan due to the severity of climate change,” Orrego said.
With information from El Economista