After two months of water rationing in Bogota and the 12 municipalities that the Aqueduct Companythere are clear conclusions about the behavior of the consumption of users and the status of reservoirsthe two main objectives of the restriction on the service.
According to the criteria of
As of this Wednesday, all Bogota residents have already completed eight shift cycles, that is, they have added a week with a 24-hour restriction. And although there have been savings, they have not reached the established goal of 15 cubic meters per second.
In each of the nine shifts, which correspond to the same number of hydraulic operation zones into which the city was divided for rationing, consumption has varied above 15 cubic meters and close to 17 cubic meters.
However, and although it is believed that it could decrease even more, the Aqueduct and the CAR highlight the savings that have been made so far. Consumption was 18 cubic meters per second or more before rationing.
The lowest water consumption was recorded on May 13, corresponding to shift 6. According to reports from the Bogotá Aqueduct, 14.86 cubic meters per second were consumed that day, corresponding to Suba and the municipality of Soacha.
And the highest consumption was on June 8, for shift 5. 16.34 cubic meters were consumed per second. In that turn were the towns of San Cristóbal and Ciudad Bolívar.
The manager of the Aqueduct, Natasha Avendaño, on a recent visit to the Chuza reservoir.
Photo:MAURICIO MORENO
Water consumption in municipalities
As for the municipalities, according to monitoring reports carried out by the Acueducto, Funza, La Calera, Chía and Cajicá reduced consumption and presented savings of more than 14 percent.
And Tocancipá, Madrid and a small sector of Soacha supplied by the operator Emar require a greater effort. In these, consumption increased on average by 15.4 percent in May, compared to March (prior to the start of rationing).
It is worth remembering that Bogotá captures water from three systems: Northern Aggregate, made up of the Tominé, Sisga and Neusa reservoirs; Chingaza System, which has Chuza and San Rafael, and Aggregado Sur, with Chisacá and Regadera. These systems were reinforced by the El Dorado plant, in San Cristóbal.
The Neusa reservoir (photo) increased its water levels.
Photo:Car Cundinamarca
Behavior of reservoir levels
Savings meant at the beginning of rationing, when the water crisis was most evident, that the accelerated reduction in the level brought by the reservoirs was slowed down, particularly those of the Chingaza system, which fell to historic levels.
The serious thing about this situation is that 70 percent of the water consumed in the country’s capital comes from said system, 25 percent from the Northern Aggregate and the remaining 5 percent from the Southern Aggregate.
In fact, on April 11, when rationing began, the two Chingaza reservoirs were on average at 16.63 percent of their capacity and with a downward trend, with the first being more critical, with 16.13 percent.
The two reservoirs have a total capacity of 327 million cubic meters, distributed as follows: Chuza, with 252 million cubic meters, and San Rafael, with 75 million cubic meters.
According to the CAR, the Chingaza system is at 37.16 percent of its capacity, half the level that the Aqueduct and the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá have proposed to achieve.
Today, according to the CAR’s daily report, this system is at 37.16 percent of its capacity, half the level that the Aqueduct and the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá has proposed to achieve by next October (75%) and thus guarantee enough liquid for the rest of the year and 2025.
And although with the return of the rains in April (several weeks later than expected) the reservoirs that supply Bogotá and neighboring municipalities began to recover, this process has not been as fast as could be expected.
On the contrary, the reservoirs have different behaviors, and the slowest in recovering the level, and those that interest the city the most, are those of Chingaza, especially Chuza. It draws from the Guatiquía River and that water is brought through a tunnel to the Wiesner plant in La Calera.
The Chuza reservoir has been favored by the increase in rainfall in the basin where it is located.
Photo:Mauricio Moreno
Those with the best performance at this time are the Chisacá and Regadera reservoirs (Southern Aggregate), with 92.65 percent, on average, but they are not representative. And Neusa, Sisga and Tominé (North Aggregate) are barely at 55.24 percent.
CAR explains the causes of the different behavior of reservoirs
The director of the CAR, Alfred Ballesteros, explains the behavior of the filling of the reservoirs, mainly, in the rainfall regime of the hydrographic basins where they are located.
According to the director of the environmental corporation, the majority are in the Bogotá River basin and are influenced by the bimodal regime, that is, two rainy seasons per year: from mid-March to mid-June and from mid-September to mid-December.
But in the case of Chuza, which due to its capacity is the most representative for the Chingaza system and for Bogotá, it has a unimodal regime (one rainy season per year).
This reservoir, located in the municipality of Fómeque (Cundinamarca), is located in the Orinoquia hydrographic basin.
There, generally, rainfall occurs in the months of June, July and August, and that is why in recent weeks the level has increased more significantly.
Alfred Ballesteros Alarcón director of the CAR.
Photo:MAURICIO MORENO THE TIME
“Reservoirs are filled in two ways: by rain falling on the reservoir basin, and that does not represent significant volumes, and by the water they receive from the tributaries (streams and rivers) that feed them, which is essential,” says Ballesteros.
Reservoirs are filled in two ways: by rain falling on the reservoir basin, and that does not represent significant volumes, and by the water they receive from the tributaries (streams and rivers) that feed them, which is fundamentally so.
And, according to the CAR director, soil coverage also has an influence. In the case of the paramo and sub-paramo areas, the natural covers are native species such as frailejones, which retain water and this mirror gives rise to the streams.
“But when the land has been deforested, when the soil layer has been transformed, for example by potato crops, the phenomenon with water resources changes. When it rains, most of the water does not reach a water source, but infiltrates into the soil,” indicates the CAR director.
Added to this, Ballesteros adds, is the phenomenon of evapotranspiration of the water stored in the reservoirs and that which circulates through the streams, particularly in those that do not have native vegetation, as a consequence of solar radiation.
In conclusion, although the people of Bogotá and the inhabitants of neighboring municipalities have managed to reduce consumption, which before rationing reached over 18 cubic meters per second, and the reservoirs have recovered, the environmental and district authorities still do not feel that rationing can be “relaxed a little”, as pointed out by the manager of the Bogotá Aqueduct, Natasha Avendaño.
GUILLERMO REINOSO RODRÍGUEZ
Bogotá Editor
In X: @guirei24
