The mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, provided details of the changes that will occur in the water rationing planin view of the recovery of the Chingaza reservoir system, which supplies liquid to the country’s capital.
The District Administration made the rationing plan more flexible and modified the shifts for water cuts, which will no longer be every day, otherwise they will be done every other day; That is, the restriction plan across the nine zones will remain in force, but it will be implemented one day and not another.
Although the shifts will not change, starting next Monday, July 1st, the water will no longer be cut off every nine days, but rather every 18 days.
This brings to Bogotá a relaxation in the restriction, since, One day the shift area will have the restriction, but the next, the city will not have any limitations regarding water consumption.
According to the report from the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, the new rationing measures show that the Chingaza reservoirs have accumulated 73.76 million cubic meters of water since the restrictions were implemented.
Of this total, 14.28 million cubic meters are directly attributed to rationing measures, “This indicates that the policies adopted are significantly helping to improve water storage, crucial to guarantee supply during periods of drought.”said Mayor Galán.
The restrictions will continue to be in effect for 24 hours in each shift and the city and surrounding municipalities will continue with the nine zones defined since April 11, 2024.
“Thanks to these measures we have been able to face the crisis we are experiencing and move forward to guarantee that not only the current problems we are experiencing this year are resolved.but also that we manage to prepare for what may be a water challenge in 2025,” Galán said yesterday at the press conference.
Likewise, the president explained in detail how this new rationing scheme will be applied: “We are going to have one day with one zone, the next day no zone in Bogotá will have restrictions. 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.
The president added that the decision to make the scheme more flexible came after what he described as a positive behavior of the rains, which have been close to 90% of historical levels, a situation that has allowed the rise in the level of the reservoirs that make up the Chingaza system, and which reached more than 42% filling in June; in addition to the rationing measures implemented since April and the good behavior of citizens.
In turn, the manager of the Bogotá Aqueduct and Sewer Company, Natasha Avendaño, said that This adjustment in rationing will be maintained depending on the good behavior of the citizens and the rains.and added that, if excessive growth in consumption is identified, the measures will have to be reviewed again.
“What we expect is that on average, in these 18-day cycles, we will have consumption in the city close to 16.6 cubic meters per second. This is the opportunity for the city to show what it has learned and show how in Bogotá we are in solidarity with the care of water“, confirmed the manager of Eaab, Natasha Avendaño.
The official assured that if the District Administration had not carried out the rationing, The Chingaza system would be at 106 million cubic meters, while today its level is 120.5 million cubic meters.
