While drought deepens in Mexico, the National Water Commission presented a plan on Thursday which, according to officials, will save 2.8 billion cubic meters of water across the country.
Water commission officials (Conagua) said Thursday National Updated Irrigation Modernization Program aims to improve systems that will affect 200,000 hectares of irrigable land in Mexico, reducing agricultural water waste.
During her morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration planned to invest 51.8 billion pesos (2.5 billion US dollars) during her six -year term to modernize the country’s irrigation systems. She said that the system overhaul would increase productivity.
“(The hydro-farming sector) will see greater production with less water,” she said, “releasing 2.8 billion cubic meters (water) … for human consumption.”
Hydro-farming is similar to irrigated agriculture on a small scale, unlike hydraulic agriculture which is large-scale agriculture which implies the use of fluid power to operate the machines, control tools and perform various tasks on the farm.
Sheinbaum said that the transition was not as simple as installing new technologies and watching it work. The recasting of the system requires a complete organizational plan at the level of the individual farm and at the level of the federal irrigation district.
The government hopes that more efficient hydro-culture will resolve the perennial shortage of water for human consumption, a problem that has resulted in Chat on a “zero day” potential in Mexico City Last year.
Calling the unprecedented program, Efraín Morales, director of the Water Commission (Conagua), said that it was of the utmost importance because 76% of the country’s water is used in agriculture.
“The modernization program is not only to solve existing problems,” said Morales, referring to aging channels and fleeing irrigation infrastructure. “The president asked us to seek alternatives that allow more effective use of water in productive processes as well as in social consumption.”
Morales reiterated Sheinbaum’s goal of producing more food with less water to increase the availability of drinking water. He added that part of the recovered water would be used to recharge the country’s aquifers.
He said that the long -term objective is to find and implement solutions that will make the campaign of Mexico sustainable.
At the end of this year, Conagua hopes to repair or replace 315 kilometers of irrigation channels, potentially reducing water consumption by 25%, said morals. 43 other kilometers of channels will be replaced by pipes, protecting water from evaporation and reducing water loss by 40%.
The program will also pay modern – mechanized and manual valves – to make distribution and storage more effective. Telemetry systems will also be installed in a few Locations to measure the use of water and distribution.
Beyond the simple repair of the channels to avoid leaks, the program focuses on teaching responsible use of water. Among the activities, Conagua is to focus on farmers to avoid irrigating their fields too much
Conagua will also be agricultural land, with plans to level 10,500 hectares this year only. This process will allow more uniform irrigation while limiting puddle and runoff.
The program will also strive to install sprinkling irrigation systems and micro-taspersion in order to better control the amount of water and delivery calendar.
Aarón Mastache, deputy director of the Hydro-Agricoles Infrastructure Division of Conagua, explained that the program will focus mainly on 13 of the 86 MEXICS irrigation districts. These targeted districts are located near urban centers that experience water deficits, he said.
Until now, 10 irrigation districts – in Sinaloa, Morelos, Aguascalientes, Tamaulipas, Guanajuanto, Coahuila and Durango – have registered in the program. Two of the remaining districts, both in Chihuahua, should climb on board next week. Managers of the last district in Baja California negotiate the conditions for its inclusion.
Mastache has explained that the program’s budget will come from three sources: the majority of funds will come from the federal government, but the governments of the States and the farmers will also contribute, although it has not specified percentages.
With reports from The universal And Infobae
