We have just received this report from our contacts in the church in Osorno.
Osorno is in a state of emergency due to contamination of drinking water. From Thursday 11-21 July the city of Osorno remained without a supply of drinking water owing to an accident which originated in the storage plant of water from the Rahue river, where 1100 litres of petrol poured in, which contaminated completely the water network of the town. About 200,000 people were without water.
This situation caused a state of chaos in the town: the supermarkets, restaurants and commercial shops had to close through not being able to rely on a water supply and churches were closed by order of the authorities.
During this time the young people of the church set up a team of response and aid to the community, transporting water from outside Osorno in special containers installed in trucks. With this we could help the inhabitants of different needy sectors of the town and deliver water to the houses of the brothers of the church in order to cover their basic needs. We were involved in this work for five days, when we delivered about 8,500 litres of clean water.
The water supply was restored for a couple of hours in the town, but it is not suitable for drinking – the water shows a blue colour (petrol) and a bad smell. We have to buy bottled water to drink and still there is no definite date for a solution to the problem.
We pray that everything will be restored quickly: to live without water in a town is very difficult, and already many people are beginning to show illnesses such as cholera, typhus and other stomach upsets.
See this news report in Chile Today.