Latin America is running out of water. Like never before

In Bogota they laugh about it. They call it the “4-minute shower”: irony to exorcise the emergency. Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan issued an order that shuts off drinking water taps every two days. For 24 hours, the homes of at least half of the 7 million residents they run dry. In turn. A Mexico City, 9 million inhabitants anxiously awaited June 26. It was considered “day zero”. The date when all the water supplies of the immense metropolis would be exhausted. It has been exceeded. But only postponed.

Il Chuza Basinwhich guarantees 70 percent of the water supply to the capital of Colombia, is reduced to 17 percent of its normal level. It is the lowest since 1984. The president Gustavo Petro wrote a bitter truth on X: «It’s just the beginning, for the next 30 years we have to get used to changing our lives». A Mexico Cityhalf the population (4 million) has been dealing with a mysterious poison that has polluted the water supply of ten neighborhoods for a month. This was also needed to inflame an already exasperated climate. Two weeks ago 280 “colonies” out of 1,800 in the capital of Mexico discovered that they had access to water only four hours a day. A drastic cut. The Cutzamala system, the main aqueduct of the entire Valley of Mexico, has halved its reserves and now has only 39 percent. The exceptional and prolonged heat, in the North and Center of the country, has also dried up the wells that make up 40 percent of the drinking water supply.

The same thing happens in Chilein the Central States e North of Brazilin Uruguayy, in Argentinain Honduras, Salvador, GuatemalaLatin America is facing water shortages like never before.

A paradox if we consider that the entire continent, according to official data, has 35 percent of fresh water: 1/3 of all that is present on our planet. And yet, according to 2022 data from the Joint Programme Oms/Unicef for monitoring water levels and health, well 161 million inhabitants of this part of the world do not have access to clean drinking water (25 percent of the population) and others 431 million (66 percent) do not use sanitation services. They wash themselves little and badly. Not out of carelessness but because they are forced to.

The battle for theblue gold. A challenge that will keep us busy for the next 30 years. It is the new primary good, vital for those who inhabit our planet. Humans and animals, but also flora. The earth itself. We ask for a lot of it, we consume too much of it. We are in the midst of a water crisis.2023 will be remembered as the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. 2024 is likely to break the record. We console ourselves by thinking that this is a temporary emergency. Something that has been happening for centuries, like a cycle that follows its natural course. But in addition to being a lie, it is a short-sighted vision. Assuming it is true, we must consider that the world has changed. From January 1st 2024 we have become eight billion. We have different needs. Bigger and more extensive. Europe is alarmed by droughts attacking the South and North of the continent. The Maghreb region suffers from a water shortage that it has always faced with its reserves. Morocco has had to introduce cuts with shifts in the supply.

It is not a problem of underdevelopment or lack of modernization standards. It is estimated that water consumption or use will grow by 1 percent in the next 30 years. The figures outline a reality that we underestimate. Theaverage temperature increase of 1.2 degrees, already considered a “point of no return”», is due to the environmental imbalance that affects the entire planet. The heat melts the ice caps of the two Poles, the sea level rises, corrodes the coasts, advances inland. It forces entire populations to emigrate, abandoning homes and cultivated lands, as well as affections and habits. Even dengue, the virus transmitted by a type of mosquito, has reached countries where it was unknown. It arises where drought alternates with floods, leaving pools of water that stagnate.

The presence of the Niñothe meteorological phenomenon that this year after a long absence has returned to the Pacific, has produced the “perfect storm”. It has increased heat waves that trigger fires, warm the ocean waters, cause fish to flee in search of cold currents; it has left millions of fishermen on the street, already afflicted by oil and other spills into the sea, as happened last summer in Peru, and by the ruthless competition of Chinese fleets. The arrival of the Sister Niña with her cold currents. But it is late and it is not certain that it will compensate for the torrid heat of the last few months. It only causes violent downpours. As in Porto Alegrein Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The city, industrial and among the richest in the country, was submerged by the water of the rivers that flooded. Now it is covered by a layer of mud and debris. It will take 20 years to restore it to its former splendor.

The scenario described this year by the experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) It is not encouraging. They estimate that the temperature increase will continue until 2070 and that this will reduce precipitation by 20 percent in Northeast Brazil, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The Organization of American States (OAS) says that droughts in 2023 and the first five months of this year have ended up increasing poverty, food insecurity, migration and increasing gender inequalities. The latest report from the Global Water Monitor Consortium confirms this trend. “The record heat around the world has had a profound impact on the global water cycle,” the conclusions read. “It has contributed not only to the increase in the number of forest fires, as in Canada and Brazil, but has also generated, in turn, storms, hurricanes, floods.”

It rains less and less and, when it does, the water comes from the sky like a waterfall. Meteorologists had warned in mid-2023: weather events, such as showers and hurricanes, will be fewer but more intense. This is what happened in New Zealand, Mozambique, Malawi, Myanmar, Greece, Libya, Australia. L’Italia has paid and is paying its price. Part of Emilia-Romagna was submerged by rivers that overflowed under the incessant rain; the same thing happened a few months later in Tuscany. Two weeks ago in the North East; last weekend in Valle d’Aosta and Piedmont. Roads destroyed, isolated villages like Cogne, bridges knocked down by the fury of torrents transformed into avalanches. Albert Van Dijk, professor at the Australian National University and president of the Global Water Monitor Consortium, recalls that “a total of 77 countries have recorded the highest annual temperature in the last 45 years”.

But the heat also dries up the great rivers. The Paranáthe water highway that crosses Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina until it empties into the Atlantic, is at its lowest level in months. Ships are no longer able to ply it, and this has thrown into crisis the entire trade in the southern part of South America that is mainly carried out by water. The images of boats stranded on flats of dry and cracked land in the Amazon River shocked the world. And when more than 150 dolphins were found suffocated to death last October, reality imposed itself like a whiplash.

Il Brazil had to resort to shelter. It closed the most important hydroelectric plant because, without water, the turbines could no longer turn. It went back to diesel power plants, with new emissions of carbon. Deprived of river connections, millions of inhabitants of the states of Amazonas, Rondônia and Acre have been cut off from the rest of the country. They cannot shop, supply, sell their goods. Without boats and launches, a business that keeps cities and regions alive has come to a halt. The central government has had to use helicopters and planes to transport men and food. But costs have increased and people have had to adapt. Even the Panama Canalfor the first time in its 104 years of life (1920), has had to reduce the number of passages of large cargo and oil tankers. From 36 they have gone down to 24 and since February only 18 ships can cross it each day. Prices in maritime transport have risen: an increase that has immediately been reflected on consumers.

But water is also and above all needed for agriculture. Farmers and large growers know this well. Northern Mexico struggling with a battle with the southern states of the USA. The expanses of fruit trees, but also the avocados so sought after for guacamole, need to be constantly quenched. The blue gold thus becomes a cause for conflict and strong contrasts between those who can access the aquifers and those who must make do with the streams. The criminal cartels have thrown themselves on this new asset by imposing tariffs and usufruct taxes. Many owners have had to give up, leaving room for those who impose themselves with weapons.

Water has long been recognized as an engine of economic growth. With a paradox. Middle and low-income countries need it to develop their economies but they also need economic growth to finance their water development. There are large regions of the world where this precious resource is the basis of conflicts. History repeats itself over the centuries: poisoning wells has always been a technique to make enemies or invaders thirsty. Today the wells are almost empty. From victims or targets they risk becoming the causes of future wars.