The Argentine government has offered assistance to Uruguay for the water crisis it has been experiencing for weeks.

In a letter sent to the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, Buenos Aires placed a mobile water treatment plant and workers at the neighboring country's disposal.

The unit can produce 1,700 half-liter containers of drinking water per hour.

It also offered to send an Argentine Navy 300-tonne tanker loaded with water provided by the Argentine sanitation company AYSA.

The Uruguayan government was grateful for the assistance offered but declined to accept it because it says the situation is dynamic and "rains are expected".

The metropolitan area of capital Montevideo, home to 2 million people, is suffering from a lack of drinking water in the mains.

Due to extremely little rainfall, authorities have resorted to pumping from areas closer to the Río de la Plata.

But unlike Buenos Aires, in that area, the estuary merges with the sea, so the liquid extracted has high levels of salinity

This is why tap water is not being used in the Uruguayan capital for drinking, but only for hygiene purposes.