Due to the drought, Montevideo's residents have been having trouble getting drinking water for several weeks. A Google project that will use a lot of water has angered the populace.
 |
| Montevideo, Uruguay |
Since the start of spring, the majority of residents in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital and home to 1.5 million people, have complained that the city's tap water tastes like salt and bleach. This is a direct result of the severe drought that is ravaging the area and, more importantly, the lack of foresight on the part of the government.
Paso Severino, 80 kilometers farther north, is home to the city's primary water reservoir, although it is almost completely empty. The public authorities have made an urgent commitment to install 13 kilometers of pipelines, erect a dam, and a pumping station to channel a neighboring river into this reservoir.
The unsafe water gushing out of Montevideo's taps is assured to be such by the country's minister of health. Except that those who have renal, heart, or hypertension illness should not consume it. The Uruguayan State offers two liters of mineral water per person every day to the lowest people for free because there isn't anything better available.
An already complicated scenario has a Google data center project added to it. About 30 hectares of property in Canelones, midway between the city and the freshwater reservoir, were purchased by the internet giant two years ago.
The daily water usage required to cool the next servers would be in the range of several million liters, or around 55,000 city residents. Consequently, the public is experiencing a wave of wrath.
Demonstrators wrote the word "looting" on the walls of Montevideo. Empty water bottles are used by protesters to beat the ground. Faced with the problem, the Uruguayan government is taking a different tack and making sure that Google's original idea has been scrapped in favor of a water-saving installation. Additionally, the American multinational makes sure that the project is still in the design stage and that modifications are scheduled.