Guadalajara water shortages, water extraction with inconsistencies

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The data available on the extraction of water from the Elías González Chávez Dam, also known as the Calderón Dam, and the cause of the shortage of the liquid that more than 200 colonies of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (ZMG) live, are different, depending on the agency to be consulted. 

For example, according to information provided by the Intermunicipal System of Potable Water and Sewerage Services (Siapa) in response to a request via transparency, in recent years the extraction of water in the dam has been abused, but this does not coincide with the published on the agency’s website. 

In the figures provided by Siapa, a constant increase in the extraction of water from the dam was found. After the request, the agency delivered the data from 1991, the year in which 21.3 million cubic meters (m3) were obtained from this source, almost half of the records in recent years. 

According to the data disclosed, in 2020 40.8 million m3 were extracted from the dam, the second-highest figure since 1994, when 41.1 million m3 were removed; however, on its website, it was reported that 42.4 million were extracted from it. 

The figures also do not coincide with other documents. In June 2014, the National Water Commission (Conagua) reported that 0.5 cubic meters per second reached the city from the Calderón Dam, representing 4.7 percent of the city’s total supply, but according to Siapa data that same year 8.2 percent of the total water in the ZMG came from the water body, that is, there is a difference of 3.5 percentage points. 

INCREASE EXTRACTION 

When responding to the request for information, presented by the lawyer Alejandro López Aguayo to know the history per year of the total volume of water supply for the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area from 2000 to 2020, Siapa reported that in 2020 almost 41 million of m3, the highest volume in recent years. 

For example, in 2016 32.4 million m3 were removed; in 2017, 35.4 million m3; in 2018, and 39.7 m3 in 2019. 

Siapa also reported that last year the total water expenditure in the city was 323.8 million m3, of which 61.5 percent came from Lake Chapala, 12.6 percent from the Calderón Dam, 24.3 percent were obtained from wells, and 1.4 percent of springs. 

Recently, the governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, declared that 14 percent of the water consumed by the ZMG is obtained from the Calderón Dam and that therefore the supply in 214 colonies has been affected; However, the data is inaccurate, because in recent years, according to information from Siapa, the highest percentage was 12.6 percent, registered in 2020. In 2019, the water that came from the same dam represented 12.5 percent of the total. and the previous year, 11.2 percent. 

From the information provided by the agency it also appears that water consumption in the Metropolitan Area has increased permanently. In 2000, total expenditure was 276.1 million m3, while last year it exceeded 323.8 million m3, that is, there was an increase of 47.7 million m3, which is equivalent to a difference in two decades of more than 17 percent. 

CHAPALA WATER, UNUSED 

From the history provided by Siapa, it could also be confirmed that the Metropolitan Area is not using all the water that it has concessioned from Lake Chapala

According to a document prepared by Siapa, the concession volume for the city from Lake Chapala can be up to 240 million m3 per year, but in no year have more than 200 million m3 been received. The year that more water was obtained from the lake was 2020, with 199.3 million m3. 

The liquid reaches colonies in the first block, but without pressure 

Neighbors from neighborhoods in the first block of the new water supply strategy reported that the liquid did reach them yesterday, but with little pressure. 

The plan before the shortage of the liquid, announced on Wednesday by the Intermunicipal System of Potable Water and Sewerage Services (Siapa), indicates that 159 neighborhoods of Guadalajara and Zapopan will suffer interruptions of the liquid in an alternate way: two days yes and two days no. 

Yesterday it was the turn of 94 identified with the yellow color in a portal of Siapa. Among them are Jardines del Country, Ladrón de Guevara, Lagos del Country, and Santa Teresa, in Guadalajara, and Santa Margarita, in Zapopan, in which there was water yesterday, but with little pressure. 

El impacto de la crisis del agua en la prestación del servicio de agua  potable

In Santa, Margarita neighbors specified that they only have water to fill jugs or buckets, but not to be able to bathe in the shower. Edgar Flores

Source: ntrguadalajara.com

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