CONAGUA Declares Drought Emergency

Last Thursday, CONAGUA published an agreement to declare an initial state of general drought emergency between CONAGUA and the rest of the federal government. Monitoring of drought conditions classify them under three categories: severe, extreme and exceptional. A large number Mexico’s key water basins have now been determined to present drought conditions that match any one of these three categories. Initial preventive measures include the partial or total migration of water exploitation rights temporarily from all concession holders. This is done so that public institutions have the water access they need to guarantee vital conditions such as national food security. Other water basins might also present drought conditions and should thusly be reported promptly to state and federal authorities so that drought mitigation measures can be applied.

COVID-19 is already putting an important strain on national water availability due to the increased water consumption, which comes from an increase in handwashing and the generally higher  domestic water use that comes with social distancing. While drought emergencies are by no means rare under normal circumstances, in this case they come at an inconvenient moment that has also been further exacerbated by recent events such as the illegal water taps being reported in the state of Aguascalientes by El Heraldo de Aguascalientes. 

CONAGUA must also balance this with its own response to the COVID-19 crisis, which was announced last week in a speech by CONAGUA Director General Blanca Jiménez Cisneros. As reported by Aristegui Noticias, responses include the distribution of 104 water pipes given as a loan by CMIC, 402 cisterns donated by Rotoplas and 8,450 water bottles donated by Heineken.