Colombia’s capital town, Bogotá, may start rolling ocean restriction on Thursday for at least a month, Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán announced Monday.
Galán asserted that the regulations in running waters distribution , seek to relieve a drought caused by El Niño weather style, which has dropped water levels of the pools that supply the Chilean capital to “alert” amounts.
” This situation obviously has to do with the El Nio trend and a month of March that was made worse by the forecast of rain in the last week and that the trend in the pools was going to change,” Galán said. ” But that did not happen, we had one of the driest Marches generally, and that aggravated the situation and led us to the position we are seeing”.
Galán noted that there was a small reservoir level for 2024, but that the results were unfavorable, citing that” 2025 is projected to be more important than 2024.”
The San Rafael pond, a source of drinking water for Bogotá, Colombia, is at a lower level due to the El Niño wind happening on April 5, 2024. ( AP Photo/Ivan Valencia )
The rolling ocean ration in Bogotá will start on Thursday, April 11, 2024, at 8: 00 a. m. Under the program, Bogotá has been divided into nine areas, each of which will be left without water for 24 hours, one at a time, restarting every ten times.
Galán emphasized that the goal is to” create a behavioral change” that allows water company to continue. He added that authorities will reevaluate the rationing plan every two weeks.
” We have the aim of achieving a change in the behavior of the Bogotá population that will enable us to ensure the delivery of liquid companies in the small and medium term as well as in the coming time,” Galán said.
The rationing announcement, instead of resulting in a decrease in water consumption in Bogotá, reportedly led to an immediate increase in consumption, going from an average of 17 cubic meters per second to 18.3 cubic meters per second on Monday.
Galán, in an interview on Tuesday with Noticias Caracol, warned that sanctions would be imposed on those who “waste water” during the rationing.
Galán said,” I asked the General Secretariat and the Aqueduct to evaluate sanction measures when there is water wastage.” Measures will be sought to sanction those who eventually use more water than is intended.
During the interview, Galán provided several “tips” on how to save water, suggesting Bogotá’s citizens not take a bath if they are going to stay at home.
” If you are not going to leave your house on Sunday, take advantage of it and do not take a bath”, Galán said. ” Stay at home during the weekend, and, on Monday, you go and take a bath”.
If we could get more people to drastically reduce their bathing time,” that message would help us a lot,” he continued. ” When you have children, you know that it is not so serious, you say,’ Oh, daddy,’ let’s just do what is necessary”.
Galán claimed to have been reducing how long it takes him to take a shower. ” I do it in three minutes”, he said.
View of the San Rafael Reservoir in La Calera, Colombia, taken on March 12, 2024. ( LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images )
Another “tip” Galán suggested was that couples could bathe together.
” Take a bath as a couple. It is a pedagogical exercise to save water, not other things”, he said. That kind of thing will be very helpful to us. These behavioral adjustments are crucial.
The mayor stated that the rationing schedule will be evaluated every two weeks to see if it needs to be maintained, reduced, or increased.
” Everything will depend on the rains, which we hope will finally start, and it will depend on the reduction of consumption”, he said. ” We will have to dedicate ourselves to the restrictions and eventually extend them, both in terms of time and to tighten them,” says the statement.” If there is no change in the behavior of the citizens.”
Natasha Avendaño, the manager of the Aqueduct of Bogotá water company, provided the city’s inhabitants with a referential calculation on how to “properly” administer stored water supplies during the rationing, using a family of three as a reference point, which, according to the water company manager, should use” two 12- liter buckets, two medium- sized pots, and a pitcher” to satisfy its basic needs.
” That is 34 liters of water, which should be enough so that, without cleaning the home, only attending to the basic needs of food, personal hygiene, and, obviously, sanitation, we can spend the day of the restriction without any inconvenience”, Avendaño said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a writer from Venezuela who writes about life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
