WATER NEWS 2/26

Mexico Water news roundup

New plant to provide clean water to the 200K residents of thirsty Durango city

The plant will provide badly needed potable water to Durango city, which suffers from water shortages and contaminated water due to overexploitation of aquifers

President Claudia Sheinbaum on Saturday visited Durango’s new Guadalupe Victoria water treatment plant construction site. The plant will provide clean water to Durango city in the northern Mexican state of Durango. The facility is set to begin operations on March 25. 

(Mexico News Daily)

See a Deep-Sea Oarfish Caught Alive on Video in a Rare Encounter on a Beach in Mexico

In Japanese folklore, appearances of these elusive marine creatures dubbed ‘doomsday fish’ are believed to foreshadow earthquakes, though scientists found no strong relationship between these events in a recent study. (Smithsonian)

How a Jalisco town saved their wetlands

I’m sitting in the town of Casa Blanca, Jalisco, population 600, with local activist Juanita Ramírez, as we find ourselves surveying the wetlands in the area. On the floor next to me there’s a mountain of colorful ears of corn that need shelling.

Ramírez is telling me about the Santiago River, one of Mexico’s biggest, which flows just 644 meters north of the center of Casa Blanca.

(Mexico News Daily))

Saving Xochimilco: The battle to preserve Mexico City’s ancient canals

It’s early morning, and despite the color and chaos of Mexico City just minutes away, the only sound filling my ears is a wooden paddle carving lazily through the water amidst the calls of wetland birds. A burgeoning sun bounces off a labyrinthine network of canals while the silhouette of the Sierra Madre towers in the distance. 

I have come to Xochimilco, whose name comes from a Nahuatl phrase meaning ‘where the flowers grow.’ Behind me sits my guide, biologist and Xochimilco native Alejandro Gaona Dehesa, who steers the canoe while regaling me with stories of the area’s history and pointing out its various kinds of birdlife. 

(The Pinnacle Gazette)

Mexico's floating gardens are ancient wonders of sustainable farming

Standing amid rows of juicy, lime green lettuce and chunky florets of broccoli, Jose Paiz appears as if he could be the owner of a modern, high-tech farm. But the crops thriving here, in the suburbs of Mexico City, are part of a 1,000-year-old tradition.

"My ancestors were doing this before even the [Spanish] Conquistadors arrived in Mexico [in 1519]," says Paiz, while crouching down to pick up a handful of powdery soil from the "chinampa," or "floating garden," on which we are both standing.

These highly productive man-made island-farms, which can be found floating on lakes across the south of Mexico's capital, date back to the time of the Aztecs or perhaps even earlier — and now proponents say that these ancient engineering wonders could provide an important, sustainable food source as the city faces historic drought.

(Peter Yeung for Reasons to be Cheerful