Bogotá is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years – and water is becoming scarce for the region’s approximately ten million inhabitants. The administration is now restricting private water consumption.
Three minutes 16 seconds – that’s how long the song “Agua” (“Water”) by the Colombian band Bomba Estéreo lasts, and that’s exactly how long or just how short the residents of Bogotá should currently take a shower.
That’s the official recommendation of the city government, which has published a list of “shower songs” that are all less than five minutes long. Water is currently extremely scarce and Colombia’s capital is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years.
Consumption should therefore be reduced from the previous 17 cubic meters per second to 15, explained Bogotá’s mayor Fernando Galan, otherwise the restrictions would have to be tightened: “Keep bathrooms short!”, because they account for more than 50 percent of water consumption.
How far has the level fallen? An employee of the Bogotá waterworks checks the level at the San Rafael reservoir.
The water is turned off on a daily basis
The city was divided into nine sectors in which the water is turned off every day for 24 hours starting at eight in the morning, so that people have to go without water every nine days.
Diana Villada and her family filled as many buckets as they had on hand: “I’m worried that this could become the new normal here,” says Villada, “that the water in the reservoirs is sinking more and more and there’s really no water there is more for us.”
Even the little ones have to stand in line when water is distributed to the citizens in Bogotá.
Reservoirs at low level
The measures should remain in force until the capital’s water reserves have recovered. The San Rafael reservoir, one of the most important water reservoirs in the metropolitan region with around ten million inhabitants, is at a critical low: it is only 16 percent full. Without austerity measures, the water would only last about a month, the mayor explained.
The water crisis also has regional implications: Due to the shortage and critical production of hydroelectric power plants, Andrés Camacho, Colombia’s Minister of Mines and Energy, announced earlier this week that he would stop exporting electricity to neighboring Ecuador: “At the moment we are not exporting electricity. We are seizing all Measures to meet our national needs.”
Ecuador itself is suffering from an energy crisis. On Tuesday, President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency – a few days before an important referendum on the tense security situation in the country.
Better protect ecosystems
The reason for the water crisis is, on the one hand, the climate phenomenon El Niño. The normally heavy regional rainfall has almost stopped since last year. In addition, the country suffered from a heat wave at the beginning of the year until March, and forest fires raged in the mountains around the capital, which is located at an altitude of 2,600 meters.
But these were not the only factors that led to the current crisis. “We need to understand our dependence on nature. That’s basically what this crisis is showing us,” says Carlos Mauricio Herrera, conservation director at WWF Colombia.
Water consumption in Bogotá has increased in recent years as the city continues to grow. However, the government hardly reacted to the development. The city must plan and regulate its resources better and take care of the local ecosystems: “Without management, protection and preservation of the Andean forests and wetlands on which we depend, the shortage will become even worse,” said the WWF expert.
Meanwhile, the crisis continues. The residents of Bogotá are hopeful that the first rains fell in the middle of the week.
Anne Herrberg, ARD Rio de Janeiro, tagesschau, April 19, 2024 12:42 p.m