The government will invest 60 billion pesos to recover drinking water: Conagua

The federal government will allocate more than 60 billion pesos during this six-year term to recover 2.8 billion cubic meters of water , a volume equivalent to three times the annual consumption of Mexico City.

In a morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo explained that the strategy seeks to recover water from agricultural irrigation districts to redirect it for human consumption in urban areas with water supply problems.

The head of Conagua, Efraín Morales , noted that 76% of water in Mexico is used in agriculture , so the plan includes the modernization of 200,000 hectares of crops , with the goal of producing food with less water consumption.

According to Aaron Mastache , deputy director of Hydro-Agricultural Infrastructure, the program includes rehabilitating deteriorated canals, damaged dams, and flood irrigation systems that generate significant losses due to seepage and evaporation.

Priority areas are located near cities experiencing supply crises. Among them:

• Aguascalientes: Pavilion District.
• Hidalgo: Three districts of the Mezquital Valley, to support the Valley of Mexico.
• Chihuahua: Juárez Valley, close to Ciudad Juárez.
• Sinaloa: Districts in Los Mochis and Culiacán.
• Guanajuato: Upper Lerma River, with an aqueduct to León and other cities in the Bajío region.
• Michoacán: Water support for Morelia.
• Tamaulipas: Supply to Matamoros, Obregón and Reynosa.
• Coahuila and Durango: Healthy Water Project for La Laguna.
• Sonora: Districts on the Mayo River and Yaqui Valley.
• Morelos: Water for Cuernavaca, Cuautla and Jojutla.

With this plan, the government seeks to recover up to 55% of the water in plots of land and 40% in major infrastructure , consolidating a program that, according to Conagua, is unprecedented worldwide.