Water rationing could begin this week as Cuenca approaches two months of drought conditions

Water rationing will begin within a matter of days, possibly this week, Cuenca Mayor Cristián Zamora said Monday. “The outage periods will be from six to eight hours a day,” he said. “These could be extended, depending on conditions at our reservoirs.”

Cuenca’s four rivers are experiencing historically low flow rates.

At a morning press conference, Zamora said he planned to announce the beginning of rationing but delayed it based on light rain that fell overnight. “This may give us a few more days,” he said.

In early afternoon, however, his office reported that Sunday night’s rainfall was “insignificant” and that the rationing plan will be announced soon.

At the press conference, Zamora said two years of below-normal rainfall has depleted the Cajas Mountains watershed that typically stores water during dry periods. “If we had received normal rainfall in 2022 and 2023 the current drought would not affect our water supply,” he said. “Water would still be filtering down from the mountains to our holding ponds. The problem is that 2022 was a dry year and then, in 2023, we suffered the El Niño, and went 118 days without rain – one of the longest droughts in our history.”

Without the normal “recharge” to the watershed and aquifers in the Cajas foothills, levels in the city’s five holding ponds is dropping, Zamora said. “The soil is very dry in the mountains and the little rain and mists that have fallen there are soaked up and do not flow downhill to our plants.”

Zamora said his staff is working with water-intensive businesses, such as vehicle washing facilities, to reduce usage but said if the drought persists, some of those operations may have to shut down temporarily. “Our main focus is providing potable water to the public but on a restricted schedule,” he said. “There will an impact on some commercial operations that use larger amounts of water, and this is unavoidable.”

Zamora added: “We must be very honest with residents that this is an extremely critical situation, one we have not faced before. Even when the rationing schedule begins, we ask all Cuencanos to use as little water as possible. There is no guarantee that this crisis will end soon.”