Two communities in the Mexican state of Jalisco have called for international aid to ameliorate the effects of extreme water shortages in their towns.
The Rancho Nuevo and Las Lomas communities, which belong to the Jilotlan de los Dolores municipality, are located in the Southeast of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Drought has severely affected the corn and sorghum harvests of farmers in the area. Likewise, the dry conditions have also affected local cattle ranchers, lending to the shortage in sorghum and maize to feed their animals.
Juan Carlos Andrade, Lomas resident and president of the administrative council of the Association of Proactive Citizens—Las Lomas, Jalisco, said that the dams the government has put in have not benefited the remote region.
“All the water goes to Michoacan,” he said, referring to the neighboring state. Andrade has appealed to the United Nations to help the region, which, he added, is often referred to as “the limbo” for its remoteness.
The dam Lopez mentioned is located in Constitución de Apatzingán, otherwise known by the locals as the Chilatán dam. It rests at the mouth of the Tepalcataepec river within the municipality’s perimeter.
The dam’s reservoir has a capacity of 601 cubic hectometers, according to the National Water Commission (Conagua by its Spanish acronym). The water may only be used for field irrigation and the dam, to regulate the water levels in the Tepalcatepec River. But the locals still need to get their water from somewhere. So they make the trek to the reservoir, however they can.
Leonardo Miranda Lopez, resident of Rancho Nuevo, with a population of 1450, told independent media reporters that there now he has to walk quite a ways from his house to obtain water, as it costs 150 to 250 pesos (USD$12-22) per hour to rent a well, or 1500 pesos (USD$135) to buy a collection tank.
Apart from possessing the resources to rent a well, those who wish to access the water must also have a truck equipped with a water tank to haul it in. Like Lopez, those without transportation, villagers must walk and carry the water back, or take their cows on a five kilometer hike to the closest watering hole. In a video posted by the Subversiones media project, ranchers lead boney cows to drink water, their path flanked by brush and dusty plains.
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