\u201cAs time passes there is less and less water,\u201d says Maribel, a native of La Palangana, a small community adjacent to the river. \u201cIt has been diverted to other lands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents of the communities surrounding the stream have for years complained that the diversion of water to properties upriver has decreased its flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protests escalated in mid-July, when residents demonstrated against the use of pipelines by SADM, the water utility company of Monterrey, to divert as much as 500 litres of water per second towards the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/pozo-agua-nueva-leon_Antonio-Ojeda_073A0026-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>In the early hours of 16 July, pipes were set on fire, halting government plans to supply the state capital, which has been suffering water shortages since the start of the year due to a severe drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is as yet unclear who exactly set fire to the pipelines in Allende \u2013 \u201cNo one really knows,\u201d says Norma Garc\u00eda \u2013 but the event looks to have marked the beginning of a new fight for the people of La Palangana: to defend the Ramos River in a war on water, in a territory where drought is disproportionately affecting low-income communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drought and the city<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
On 2 February, the government of Nuevo Le\u00f3n declared<\/a> an emergency in the state due to drought. Two of the three dams that supply the metropolitan area of Monterrey \u2013 Cerro Prieto and La Boca \u2013 had recorded historically low levels. At the end of March, La Boca was at 13% of its capacity, while Cerro Prieto only reached 7%, according to data<\/a> from the National Water Commission (Conagua).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In mid-July, Cerro Prieto effectively ran dry<\/a>, dropping to less than 1% of its capacity, thus failing to supply water to the metropolitan area for the first time since the dam was inaugurated in 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Partly contributing to the dry conditions in northern Mexico is La Ni\u00f1a, the climatic phenomenon that intensifies winds and the cooling of the equatorial Pacific, causing floods in some regions and droughts in others. Unusually, this weather pattern has persisted since 2020, now entering into a third year<\/a>. According to Mexico\u2019s National Meteorological Service<\/a>, it is expected that La Ni\u00f1a will remain until February 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the people of northern Mexico, climate change and its intensifying impacts are adding to the difficulties brought about by La Ni\u00f1a. Together, they are giving rise to a critical situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Garc\u00eda, one of the most affected municipalities in Nuevo Le\u00f3n, some families have spent two to three days without home water supply; others have gone up to six months, and must buy their own water or access community tanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following rains in September and October, SADM announced<\/a> that the water service in the Monterrey metropolitan area was now being maintained 24 hours a day, with the exception of the municipality of Garc\u00eda, which \u201chas a structural problem in the supply network\u201d. Users, however, have since reported on social networks that intermittent cuts in supply continue in the municipalities of Santa Catarina and Apodaca, on the edges of the metropolitan area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Antonio Hern\u00e1ndez, an activist and biologist from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Le\u00f3n, explains that the established water distribution networks are no longer sufficient to supply neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Monterrey such as these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a metropolitan ring that distributes the water and from this it is sent to tanks that distribute it to homes,\u201d says Hern\u00e1ndez. \u201cPart of the issue is that there aren\u2019t enough tanks, and the ones that do exist are either practically empty or at very low levels. That is why the water does not reach the peripheral areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With more than 5 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, semi-arid Monterrey has seen exponential growth in recent years. This has led to an extraordinary demand for water for agricultural, industrial, commercial and domestic uses, generating stress on natural resources. Approximately 70% of the state\u2019s water goes to the agricultural sector of Nuevo Le\u00f3n, explains Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosario \u00c1lvarez, director for Mexico\u2019s northeast at the environmental organisation Pronatura, says that urban planning in this time has almost been non-existent: \u201cWhy do you build so many houses so far from wells and water sources if you can\u2019t adequately supply them with a resource that is basic to life?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the pressures of the drought, Hern\u00e1ndez and \u00c1lvarez point to poor water management and lack of infrastructure. In mid-June, for example, a two-metre crack<\/a> in the El Cuchillo dam, to the east of Monterrey, affected six municipalities for several days. Many pipes have also not withstood the changes in pressure in the distribution network, causing leaks and wasting vast quantities of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March, the government of Nuevo Le\u00f3n announced the Agua para Todos<\/a> plan, a strategy of staggered supply cuts by municipalities. While citizens were advised to take short showers, industrial and agricultural users that draw from underground aquifers were only asked to voluntarily cede part of their concessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This measure caused social unrest, with roadblocks laid in protest and neighbourhood disputes becoming a feature of everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe water trucks don\u2019t come as much anymore because the violence was growing,\u201d explains Francisco Flores Baez, a resident of Valle de San Blas, in the municipality of Garc\u00eda. \u201cPeople were fighting, piling up and pushing in to get water. It was a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Flores and his wife Felicia, parents of two girls aged 9 and 13, expenses have increased as they have been forced to buy bottled water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had diarrhoea and stomach pains and that\u2019s why we started buying bottled water, but water also began to be scarce here in the stores,\u201d Flores recalls. For more than three months, his local corner store limited sales to two 10 litres bottles per family per day to avoid panic buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flores works in a luxury restaurant in San Pedro Garza Garc\u00eda, the richest municipality in the country, where he has not seen people struggle like in Garc\u00eda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is always water there,\u201d says Flores. \u201cBesides, they have their cisterns and storage tanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surrounded by juniper trees, Maribel, Norma, Flor Estela, Mar\u00eda Luisa and Mar\u00eda Adriana observe the muddy river. In addition to the poor quality of the water, the women are concerned that the river will dry up like the acequia<\/em>, the traditional irrigation canals that carry water to fields \u2013 or used to, at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren to continue enjoying where they grew up,\u201d says Mar\u00eda Luisa. \u201cThe great-grandchildren are going to say: well, it used to be a river here. Just as we now say: before it was a very beautiful acequia<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in Monterrey the focus is on the dams, in La Palangana there is also a focus on conserving the ecosystem and biodiversity of the Ramos River. \u00c1lvarez emphasises that in addition to the dams, streams are also drying up, affecting a significant number of species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNuevo Le\u00f3n is much more than just the Monterrey metropolitan area, and it is much more than the individuals who drink the water,\u201d \u00c1lvarez adds. \u201cThere is a very important amount of biodiversity that is having a very hard time with the drought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The women of La Palangana remember when fish species such as snooks, mojarras, Matalote conchos and many others used to swim in the river, but have now disappeared. The juniper trees, too, are drying up. For the river\u2019s life, for the community\u2019s people and for future generations, they have come together to defend the river, until after the drought ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La Ni\u00f1a weather pattern and climate change have exacerbated lack of water, hitting low-income communities hardest and raising tensions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50060164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1],"tags":[],"country":[50002597],"class_list":["post-50060198","photo_story","type-photo_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","country-mexico"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Familia](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Nueva-Leon-familia-busca-agua_Antonio-Ojeda_073A0144-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>![\"Garc\u00eda](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Pozo-agua_Garcia-Nueva-Leon_Antonio-Ojeda_IMG_0042-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>There aren\u2019t enough tanks, and the ones that do exist are practically empty or at very low levels. That is why the water does not reach the peripheral areas<\/blockquote><\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Rationing and discontent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"mujer](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mujer-sirve-agua_Nueva-Leon_Antonio-Ojeda_073A0157-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>Water and inequality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n