Heriberto Montes, surface water manager for the National Water Commission (Conagua), said that of that total, 108 reservoirs are less than 50 percent full and only 37 are more than 75 percent full.
The drought and intense heat in some areas between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius are the cause of the 102 active wildfires affecting 28,741 hectares and this requires the use of a lot of water to smother them, he said.
Conagua hopes that hurricane season will alleviate the supply problem for the population, and while hurricanes are never desirable and cause a lot of damage in Mexico, there is hope that many of them will bring more water than winds and increase the flow of hurricane levees. The National Weather Service is forecasting between 14 and 19 hurricanes this year in the Pacific Ocean, five of which can reach national territory, and 16 to 21 in the Atlantic, a higher number than usual.
Meanwhile, in Querétaro, one of the areas hardest hit by the shortage of the vital liquid, citizen protests continued this Saturday against the decision by the local congress, which dominates the ultra-conservative National Action Party (PAN), to privatize the drinking water service.
According to local sources, with this measure, PAN mocks the need for people and has appointed private operators who will be responsible for granting and billing citizens for distribution, drainage and hydraulic works in the entity’s 18 municipalities.
Experts and environmentalists have criticized the new law, arguing that the management of this resource is an obligation that corresponds to the state and denounced that it is not a water law that guarantees access as a human right or its full management, but for an economic benefit PAN private initiative.
Activists, environmentalists and academics warned that these regulations lack legal harmonization with international agreements and national standards, and diagnosis based on aquifer balance and hydrological basin restoration.
Dozens of citizens demonstrated outside Congress as MPs from the National Renewal Movement (Morena) criticized their counterparts for pressuring the creation of the new law.
In Querétaro, 22 private operators providing drinking water, sewerage and sanitation have proliferated, a number that through various legal tricks has benefited businessmen linked to politicians and state officials.
rgh/lma