Sinaloa aquifers are at risk, overexploited, Conselva denounces

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Of the 14 aquifers in Sinaloa, 8 are overexploited, that is, 57 percent, which must be urgently attacked, said environmentalist Sandra Guido Sánchez.

MAZATLAN.- How are the aquifers in Sinaloa? In Mexico? The executive director of Conselva, Coasts, and Communities explained that 57 percent of the aquifers in Sinaloa are overexploited, that is, 8 of the 14 existing ones.

In his conference “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible”, he explained the importance of groundwater as a source of supply for 70 percent of the country’s agriculture, industry, and cities.

However, he also emphasized that it is a long way from having comprehensive aquifer management.

According to the director of the association, an aquifer is balanced when recharge is equal to extraction, and in Mexico, 35 percent of aquifers are in trouble.

In the case of Sinaloa, the Presidio River, which has an average annual availability of -14.6 hm3/year and provides water to 590 localities, with Mazatlán being the city with the largest population.

“Mocorito, Culiacán, especially Piaxtla, Quelite, Presidio, Baluarte, Laguna Agua Grande and the Cañas River, are the most overexploited. We really have a very serious problem here and it speaks of the little capacity that we have been managing this water that is invisible”, he declared.

This aquifer has a natural scarcity of water, since it has a precipitation of 782 millimeters and an evaporation potential of 1,720 millimeters, in fact, in just four years the availability of the aquifer was reduced by 182 percent.

For Guido Sánchez, the key to counteracting the effects of climate change and productive activities in the Presidio River aquifer is to restore green infrastructure in the basin.

“We need to capture more water that infiltrates and this is a job above all of the municipality, it must invest together with federal authorities in soil and water conservation works that recharge the groundwater layer, that is very important,” he said.

Currently, to increase the recharge of the aquifer, this association carries out soil and water conservation works in the area, creates filter and gabion dams, and seeks to reduce soil compaction with sustainable agricultural practices, in the basins of southern Sinaloa de the Presidio and Baluarte rivers.

Source: punto.mx

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