Rationalizing water supplies on the cards if the drought continues.

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Rationalizing water supplies on the cards if the drought continues.

Posted 26/04/2023

If the dry period continues and users continue to use water in a way that is not consistent with this reality, the Institute of National Aqueducts and Sewers (Idaan) does not rule out the possibility of starting to rationalize the supply, as other countries have already done.

The warning comes as a result of the prolonged drought, which is affecting this productivity throughout Panama and, on the other hand, the issue of phenomena such as El Niño, which is cyclical and will definitely affect more and more, taking into account that there is population growth, the director of operations of the Institute of National Aqueducts and Sewers, Iván Cano (Idaan) told AM News.

According to the official, 80% of the Idaan plants work non-continuously, which is causing shortages for users.                          Declarations of the director of this entity, Juan Antonio Ducruet, in which it has not invested properly in recent years, and for this reason, during the current administration, drilling machines are being acquired to be able to extract more water from underground sources. and have an available supply of demand for all customers.

In this sense, he explained that Lake Alajuela, from which the Chilibre water treatment plant is supplied, woke up today with 204.6, a low level that limits the collection capacity and therefore the production capacity in the metropolis.

Likewise, in the province of Panama Oeste, specifically in Chame, the water treatment plant is stopped because the river that bears the same name and that supplies the area dried up; while, in Cabra, East sector, the plant is working at 30%, affecting the supply.

"In the Chame district, work is being done intermittently and levels have recovered a little as a result of a trigger dam," he added.

In the case of Lake Alajuela, there is an average of 1.5 to 2 cubic meters per second that evaporates, this, plus the extraction of water for human consumption equals the amount of water provided by the rivers, he explained.

For all this situation, the institution, according to Cano, is taking a series of measures, among these, the reduction of physical losses, and the so-called breaks, and for this, they carry out a plan; Another of the measures is to try to reduce pressures through regulations to reduce the consequent losses and a third is a commitment to customers that make good use of the resource.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/rationalizing-water-supplies-on-the-cards-if-the-drought-continues