"Give Only 1 Cup of Water"... South American Drought Changes Even School Meal Guidelines

Uruguay Suffering from Severe Drought
"Guidelines to Reuse Pasta Cooking Water" Also Issued

As severe drought plagues Uruguay in South America, the water shortage crisis is becoming so serious that even school meal guidelines for students are being changed.

According to the Uruguayan daily newspaper El Observador on the 18th (local time), the Ecuador Ministry of Education recently issued recommended meal guidelines to respond to water shortages for schools at all levels in Montevideo (the capital) and Canelones, densely populated areas. These two regions are densely populated areas where about half of Uruguay's 3.4 million people live, with the number of students reaching 120,000.

[Image source=Pixabay]

The Ministry of Education issued guidelines stating, "Provide water only when children request it, and do not offer it in advance." The amount of water was also limited to "one glass of water per child."

The guidelines also included advice to reduce the use of salt when seasoning food. This is because the Montevideo Waterworks currently supplies water mixed with freshwater from the estuary area with high salinity due to concerns about the depletion of the Paso Severino reservoir, the water supply source for the metropolitan area. They also recommended reusing water used to boil pasta.

According to data published on the South American Southern Drought Information System (SISSA) website, some southwestern regions of Uruguay are classified as experiencing the worst level of drought, "exceptional drought," out of six levels. SISSA classifies drought levels into six stages based on satellite data and on-site rainfall observations: "no drought - normal - watch - severe - extreme - exceptional." Local media reported that since Uruguay heavily depends on exports in the agriculture and livestock sectors, this drought is close to a national disaster.

On March 14, 2023, the Canelon Grande Reservoir north of Canelones in southern Uruguay is seen dried up. The main purpose of this reservoir is to supply drinking water to the Montevideo metropolitan area, but the worst drought in history is threatening the water supply for millions of people. [Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

In a related report, SISSA warned, "As the La Ni?a phenomenon continues, unprecedented dry weather is being recorded in South America," and "national measures and interdisciplinary information exchange are required to mitigate the severe situation."

La Ni?a is a phenomenon where the sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific is lower than average. While it brings extreme monsoons to Indonesia and the western Pacific, it causes severe cold in northern North America and severe drought in the South American region.

However, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) stated in a report published on the 3rd that the probability of an El Ni?o phenomenon occurring in the second half of this year is increasing. El Ni?o refers to a phenomenon where the sea surface temperature in the eastern Pacific remains at least 0.5°C above average for five months or more, based on a three-month moving average. Generally, El Ni?o tends to cause droughts in East Asia and Australia and floods in South America.

The Canelones reservoir and dam, showing the bottom due to severe drought [Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.