Specialists urge alternatives in case the existing system fails
View of Lake Chapala from the shore of the beach next to the Ajijic dock. Photo: Archive.
Editorial Staff. Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez ruled out the construction of a second aqueduct to supply the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (AMG) during his term of office.
«This was my campaign commitment and I stand by it. We are not going to take one more liter from Chapala. We cannot drain the lake to solve the city’s supply problem. That commitment continues. We are not going to build a new aqueduct, but we are going to continue with the maintenance works of the old system,» said the state president.
He made this statement after academics from the Universidad de Panamericana (UP) urged state authorities to inquire about the need to build a new aqueduct to draw water from Lake Chapala.
The governor of Jalisco dismissed this observation by declaring that no more water can be taken from Mexico’s largest lake. The specialist in water technologies, Daniel Sánchez Tapetillo, replied that the second aqueduct would have the function of substituting for the first one in case it failed.
«The second aqueduct is not to take more water from the lake than the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area already has a concession for. To believe that is a mistake. We have a concession of 236.5 million cubic meters a year, that is, 7.5 cubic meters per second. The two aqueducts could never operate simultaneously.»
The specialist assured that, after 30 years of age, the maintenance of the first aqueduct is urgent, because in the event of a failure, 60 percent of the water needed would no longer be supplied. In his opinion the useful life of the current system has already been exceeded.
Sanchez Tapetillo said he regretted that the governor did not listen to the proposals of academics from the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), the Pan-American University (UP) or the Technological Institute of Superior Studies of the West (ITESO), since they are institutions that for years have reviewed the issue and their contributions are to act in time and prevent more than 60 percent of citizens of Guadalajara from running out of water.
Translated by Nita Rudy
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