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For days, the government in Bogotà has been calling for people to use drinking water sparingly. If it doesn’t rain soon, the capital will run out of water in the long term. The facts.
It’s all about this: Colombia has been suffering from exceptional heat since the beginning of the year. The cyclical El Niño weather phenomenon has caused severe drought and forest fires. At the end of January, the Colombian government declared a state of emergency and asked for international help. “Large amounts of water were needed to put out these fires. And all of this means that the reservoirs around the capital Bogotà now have the lowest water level in decades,” says SRF correspondent Teresa Delgado. If it doesn’t rain soon, Bogotà will run out of water in the long term. Around nine million people would be affected.
The government’s measures: From Thursday, tap water in Bogotà will be rationed. The capital’s mayor announced at a press conference: “The critical water levels in the reservoirs from which we obtain drinking water for Bogotà are prompting us to take water-saving measures and reduce consumption from seventeen cubic meters per second to fifteen.”
Every ten days, the water is turned off in one of Bogota’s nine sectors, he explained. “Hospitals and schools have emergency plans and we will ensure that they do not run out of water,” he emphasized. The measures would remain in force until the capital’s water reserves had recovered.
Legend:
The water level of the San Rafael reservoir, a source of drinking water for Bogotà, is very low. (Image: April 8, 2024)
Keystone/FERNANDO VERGARA
This is how the people in Bogota react: The government also recommends on social media to only take short showers. Shower music, such as Agua by the Colombian band Bombay Stereo, is intended to encourage Bogota residents to shower for less than five minutes. “Some people are annoyed by something like that, others laugh about it,” says SRF correspondent Teresa Delgado.
The mayor also said: If you don’t leave the house, you shouldn’t shower at all. Couples should also shower in pairs. “That promptly generated a few funny headlines in the Colombian newspapers: The mayor was promoting love because of the water shortage,” said Delgado. But the situation is no laughing matter. “Colombians almost show something like gallows humor.”
Ways of civil society to combat water scarcity: Many residential buildings in the capital have installed water tanks on the roofs and people are stocking up on drinking water from the supermarket, says Delgado. People probably have to find their own ways to help themselves in this situation. “The next few days and weeks will show whether the people of the capital will take part in the rationing system or whether there might even be protests,” she says.