SAO PAULO, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, the most populated urban area in Brazil, is facing an emergency in its drinking water supply, authorities said Monday.

According to authorities, the current water crisis is the result of an intense heat wave, a sharp rise in consumption, and a persistent drought that has left reservoirs at critically low levels in the South American area with around 20 million inhabitants.

The crisis came amid structural changes in the sanitation sector. In 2024, the Sao Paulo state government privatized the Basic Sanitation Company of Sao Paulo State (Sabesp), formerly the largest publicly owned sanitation company in Latin America, which since August has applied overnight cuts to drinking water service.

According to a Sao Paulo state government release, data from Sabesp show that water consumption in metropolitan Sao Paulo rose as much as 60 percent last week, even though nearly 30 percent of the population is outside the region for the holiday period.

In response, state authorities reinforced guidelines for conscious water use and the adoption of "urgent measures to reduce waste."

Rationing implemented since August has saved an estimated 57 billion liters of water, authorities said.

Despite those measures, the combination of higher consumption and lack of rainfall continues to affect reservoir levels of water in the Integrated Metropolitan System, which is currently operating at only 26.42 percent of total capacity. ■