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The mayor of Bogota is asking couples in the Colombian capital to shower together — or perhaps not at all — in an effort to save water amid an ongoing shortage that has reached crisis levels.
According to The Guardian, mayor Carlos Fernando Galán told residents who are in a relationship to get in the shower at the same time to save water. He added: “If you are not going to leave your house on Sunday or any other day of the week, take advantage of it and do not take a bath.”
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His advice comes as several Bogota neighbourhoods were cut off form the water grid on Thursday in an effort to protect already low water levels at reservoirs that have been drying up due to lack of rain caused in part by this year’s El Nino, a climatic phenomenon which warms the Pacific Ocean and affects weather patterns around the world.
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The Chuza and San Rafael reservoirs, part of the Chingaza System that provides 70 per cent of the city’s drinking water, are at their lowest levels since at least the 1980s. City officials have responded by dividing Bogota into 9 zones, each of which will be cut off from the water grid for 24 hours in rotation.
“Let’s not waste a drop of water in Bogota at this time,” Galán told reporters. “That will help us so that these restrictions can be lifted more quickly or reduced.” He did not say how the measures would last.
The lack of rain is also raising fears of power blackouts, since Colombia gets about two thirds of its electricity from hydroelectric power. The nation’s power market operator warned that low reservoir levels may spark outages at times of peak demand.
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Power generation reservoirs are holding about 32 per cent of their capacity, the operator Compania de Expertos en Mercados SA said in a letter to the government dated March 30. Meanwhile, energy demand grew more than eight per cent in March compared to the same period a year ago.
The operator is asking the Colombian government to cut electricity exports to Ecuador — which account for about three per cent of the nation’s total electricity demand — to shore up supply. It is also making sure that gas-fired plants have enough fuel available.
Bogota is not the only major Latin American city forced to take action to combat drought. Mexico City has also been rationing water supplies in the past month, and Guatemala declared an emergency on Wednesday as it struggles to tame wildfires.
— with files from Bloomberg
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