They make water rationing more flexible in Bogotá due to an increase in the levels of the reservoirs that supply it

The Bogotá mayor’s office decided on Wednesday to relax the water restriction that has been in force in the Colombian capital since April after reporting a significant increase in the levels of the reservoirs that supply it, after will hit their historic lows due to the drought.

With the new scheme, the restriction shifts will be spaced so that they operate every 18 days instead of every nine days. The city and a dozen surrounding municipalities are divided into nine zones to which service is restricted for 24 hours depending on their corresponding shift.

“We are going to have (restriction) one day with one zone, the next day no zone in Bogotá will have a restriction, the next day the second zone will go into restriction and on the fourth day no zone will be in restriction and so on,” he explained to the press. Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán.

Bogotá has been in water rationing since April, the first due to drought in 40 years and which was a product of the El Niño phenomenon, which brought a deficit in precipitation and increases in temperatures. The climate phenomenon was overcome on May 10, according to the government.

For Galán, the increase in the levels of the Chingaza system reservoirs that supply the city — from 16% to 42% — is explained by the increase in rains that began in April and the restriction of water consumption.

However, he pointed out that the restriction was not lifted as a way to reserve the greatest number of cubic meters to face a possible dry season at the end of the year and the beginning of the next. The goal, said the president, is for the reservoirs to reach levels of 70% by the end of October.

“What we expect is that on average, in these 18-day cycles, we will have a consumption in the city close to 16.6 cubic meters per second,” explained Galán, who reported that the day before the city consumed 15.8 cubic meters per second.

70% of the water consumed by Bogotá comes from the Chingaza system, made up of the Chuza and San Rafael reservoirs.

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