Chihuahua.- While until last November 15, Chihuahua continued as the only state in the republic with one hundred percent of the territory in some degree of drought, the statistics on dams show that here are the ones with the greatest reductions in the region in storage levels. .
According to data from the Agri-Food and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP) of the federal government, the Abraham González, in the municipality of Guerrero Until October 30, it was at 23 percent of its capacity, when the average in recent years had been 59 percent, a drop of 36 points that is the largest in the northeast area.
Also at the Las Lajas dam, located in Buenaventura, the average had been 41 percent, but on the date of the comparison it was at six percent, with a difference of 35 points; while Francisco I. Madero, in Rosales, fell from 44 to 12 percent.
The northeast region in the SIAP measurement also includes Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas.
“The dams with the highest percentage of storage in this ten are: Marte Rodolfo Gómez, in Tamaulipas, in the northeast region; Cajón de Peña, in Jalisco, and Tepúxtepec, in Michoacán, both in the central western region, which are above 100 percent, while the Las Lajas dam, in Chihuahua, in the northeastern region, continues to present the highest percentage. low storage, with less than 10 percent,” says the SIAP report – dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture – on reservoirs for agricultural use.
La Boquilla, in San Francisco de Conchos, was also at 16 percent on the date of the comparison, while the average for the previous five-year period had been 41 percent, or 25 points better than the current situation.
They plan to cancel the 2025 cycle
According to Jorge Robles, president of the National Water Defense association and farmer of Irrigation District 005, located in the La Boquilla area and the largest in the state, the low storage of this deposit puts the 2025 agricultural cycle at risk. and, if canceled, it would be the first without a harvest in 30 years.
“(The situation) is very critical, because there will practically be no cycle,” said Robles, whose organization emerged in 2020, after the conflict over La Boquilla water.
“We farmers say that hope is the last thing that dies, but, in an extraordinary case, if it rained in February, like in 1991, when it rained in February and throughout September and October of ’90 we had had very good rains and a lot of runoff, it would be They filled the dams, but because the levels were very high. Right now that is not the case, they are very empty,” he added.
The farmer also mentioned having considered the possibility of ruling out the next sowing since last July, a month that in other years, unlike 2024, had recorded rain.
“This year it didn’t rain and we said ‘well, let’s wait until August’, and August passed and no, ‘well let’s see for September’ (…) and in September it didn’t rain and we were hoping that in October and well neither, and to date,” he said.
“And right now, many of us are assuming that there will not be a cycle, because it is very unlikely that it will rain; It would have to rain a lot for there to be runoff,” added Robles, who considered the eventual cancellation of the cycle in that district of 80 thousand hectares of irrigation to be “catastrophic.”
Regarding the drought, the monitor of the National Water Commission (Conagua) adds that the 67 municipalities of the state present some degree of shortage, with 40 percent of the territory – or 24 localities – in an “extreme” degree and another 16 percent -26 demarcations- at an “exceptional” level.
Only Sinaloa It is close to Chihuahua due to the almost total degree of drought, with 94 percent of its municipalities in this condition.
Source: Sandra Rodríguez Nieto / El Diario de Juárez from Diario MX on 2024-11-20 12:46:00
