Drought demands greater planning and investment

The most important Cordovan lakes had the lowest level in the last decade for this time of year in January. This is the result of the drought that has been in place since September 2020, according to specialists, as a result of La Niña, a climatic phenomenon that originates on the coast of Peru and generates a reduction in rainfall and an increase in temperature.

To graph it with a number, in 2022 the Córdoba airport weather station recorded 584 millimeters of rain, the lowest figure in the last 10 years. As a counterpart, the historical average of the last 30 years is above 800 millimeters per year.

The situation has an impact, on the one hand, on our daily lives. Due to the high temperatures, we use more water just when it is scarce. Since the heat waves began, around November of last year, there were not a few towns in Sierras Chicas and Punilla in which a yellow alert or water emergency was declared, and it was necessary to distribute water with tanker trucks, while In larger cities, such as Córdoba, Villa María and Alta Gracia, there were neighborhoods where running water service was interrupted for several days.

On the other hand, it also impacts on economic activity. In the agricultural sector, thousands of head of cattle have been lost and in some areas it was not possible to sow. The consequences can be quantified at harvest time, with the consequent reduction in exports and taxes collected by the State.

However, in another sense, the drought has an inexplicable social and political derivation. This is the case of the alleged dispute between two municipalities over the water of a river. An environmental group from La Granja denounced that their area had no water because the municipality of La Cumbre had altered the equitable division of the riverbed that supplies both towns.

Not only did the two mayors refute the environmentalists, but also Provincial Water Resources carried out an inspection to control the gates that distribute water. The provincial authorities know that they must carry out periodic inspections because “sometimes people go and get their hands on it, and the flow varies to one side”, as an official stated in statements to journalists from this newspaper.

This absurd and anonymous meddling does not agree with the environmentalists, but rather complicates a complex panorama that is not new: for years the argument of the diversion of water courses has been used to stop real estate investment and construction in our mountain region. In fact, when a municipality decrees a water emergency, it can suspend from the granting of construction permits to the sale of land.

However, it is undeniable that in different parts of the province the necessary infrastructure works have not been carried out to face the regular increase in water consumption due to the increase in population. Without planning or investment, the underlying problem will worsen.