Medellín Starts Water Rationing as El Niño Drains Reservoirs
COLOMBIA · ENVIRONMENT
Key Facts
—What happened: Medellín has begun water rationing as El Niño pushes reservoir levels down across the Aburrá Valley.
—The warning: EPM, the city’s utility, says the cuts could last into 2027 if the dry pattern holds.
—The national angle: A nationwide energy-saving programme starts today, because Colombia’s dams feed both taps and power plants.
—Why it matters: Colombia generates most of its electricity from water. A long drought is an energy problem, not just a water problem.
Medellín water rationing has begun as El Niño drains the reservoirs of Colombia’s second city — and the utility in charge warns the restrictions could stretch into 2027.
Taps on a timer in the Aburrá Valley
Medellín’s two million households woke up to a new routine this week: scheduled hours without running water. Empresas Públicas de Medellín — EPM, the city-owned utility that supplies water, gas and electricity to much of the Aburrá Valley — activated rationing after weeks of below-average rainfall linked to the El Niño weather pattern.
El Niño is a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that shifts rainfall around the world. In Colombia it typically means months of drought in the Andean and Caribbean regions while other parts of the globe flood. The current event has been building for months, and reservoir levels in the mountains around Medellín have fallen steadily.
EPM has asked residents to cut consumption, fix leaks and store water for the hours when supply is off. The company says the Medellín water rationing plan rotates the cuts by neighbourhood, so that no district carries the full burden on any given day.
A warning that reaches into 2027
The uncomfortable part of EPM’s message is the timeline. Company officials warned that if the dry pattern persists, restrictions could remain necessary well into 2027. That is not a worst-case scenario drawn up for effect; it reflects how slowly mountain reservoirs recover after a strong El Niño.
Colombia has been here before. The 2015-2016 El Niño forced rationing in several cities and pushed the national power system close to emergency measures. The lesson then was that reservoirs refill slowly: one rainy season is rarely enough after two dry years.
Medellín is especially exposed because its supply depends on a handful of highland reservoirs and rivers. Climate scientists have long warned that the glaciers and páramos — the high-altitude wetlands that act as natural water towers — are shrinking, making every dry spell harder to absorb.
EPM itself is carrying a second burden. Its flagship Hidroituango dam, the largest hydroelectric project in Colombia’s history, has never operated at full capacity since a construction accident in 2018 flooded its machine house and forced an emergency drawdown. The project now generates far below its design output. That lost capacity is exactly the cushion the region would want in a drought year — and it is part of why the utility’s margins are thinner than its reputation suggests.
A national energy-saving programme starts today
The drought reaches beyond drinking water. Colombia generates roughly two-thirds of its electricity from hydroelectric dams. When reservoirs fall, power generation falls with them. That is why the national government launched an energy-saving programme today, asking households, offices and factories to cut electricity use, especially at peak hours.
The measures are voluntary for now: lower air-conditioning, shift heavy consumption away from the evening peak, and switch off unused equipment. But officials have made clear that mandatory restrictions are on the table if reservoir levels keep dropping and savings fall short.
The economics are simple. Every kilowatt-hour saved in the evening peak is one the hydro dams do not have to release from depleted reservoirs. The government estimates that modest household discipline — shorter showers, fuller washing machines, lights off in empty rooms — can shave several percentage points off national demand, buying the system weeks of breathing room.
The timing is awkward. As we report elsewhere today, 60 percent of Colombia’s power transmission projects are delayed, and gas reserves cover less than six years of demand. The country is being asked to save electricity precisely when the alternatives to hydropower are weakest. Regional media, including Reuters, have tracked how the El Niño pattern is squeezing utilities across northern South America this season.
What residents can expect
For now, Medellín water rationing means inconvenience rather than emergency: published schedules, lower pressure in some districts, and fines for waste. Hospitals, schools and essential services are protected from the rotating cuts.
The city government has published the rotation calendar on its website and through EPM’s customer channels. Residents are advised to store a day of drinking water, to schedule laundry and cleaning around the supply hours, and to report burst pipes quickly — in a rationing period, every lost litre counts twice.
The bigger question is duration. EPM’s warning about 2027 is a signal to businesses as much as to households: water-intensive industries, from laundries to food processors, should plan for months of restrictions, not weeks. Hotels and restaurants — the face Medellín shows its growing number of foreign visitors — are already adjusting.
The weather will decide the rest. If the rains return on schedule later this year, the reservoirs will begin their slow recovery. If they do not, Medellín water rationing could become the city’s longest stretch of water discipline in a decade — and the national grid would face the same dry months alongside it.
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