While local deputies and officials from Tamaulipas, as well as representatives of the National Water Commission (Conagua) insisted on extracting water from the Chihuahua dams to be sent to that entity, in Delicias a new front of producers and governments began to be created to defend the appeal again.
The president of the Nut Product System, Víctor Loya, confirmed that the attempts to take water from La Boquilla, Las Vírgenes and El Granero by the state government of Tamaulipas and some federal officials are real, for which he called for users to close ranks of the Irrigation District and authorities so that what happened in 2020 does not happen again, when the looting of the vital liquid was surprising.
In Reynosa, Tamaulipas, last weekend, an alliance was launched between legislators, officials and agricultural producers to “defend the water that corresponds to the users of the Rio Grande basin in the Amistad and Falcón international dams, of accordance with the provisions of the 1944 Treaty.
According to official information from that entity’s Secretariat of Hydraulic Resources for Social Development, it was a meeting of federal and local deputies, mayors of the border region, water utility agencies, representatives of irrigation districts and the Governor’s delegate in the entity, Felipe Garza Narváez, headed by the head of the state agency, Raúl Quiroga Álvarez.
In said meeting, those summoned agreed to demand the equitable distribution of water in the Rio Grande basin, “where they will exhaust all their forces so that, with the leadership of Governor Américo Villarreal Anaya, who has instructed him to set up this technical group, you can follow up on what happens in this region”.
In this meeting it was exposed that of the water stored in dams in Chihuahua, a percentage corresponds to the basin in question; For this reason, Secretary Quiroga Álvarez made it clear that they are not asking for more things, only what is fair, and to be a bit firm in the way they request things, “in that case we can organize ourselves enough to make a call to whoever is responsible to have enough water that corresponds to the state”.
He insisted on requesting the Federal Government to release the volumes of water from the Chihuahua dams that belong to the basin to mitigate the drought crisis experienced by farmers and domestic users. In this regard, the leader of the Nut Product System in Chihuahua stated that he has called on irrigation user producers, module leaders, state officials and legislators, to defend the entity’s dams from a new attempt to be emptied.
He explained that he has had communication with the federal deputy Salvador “Chava” Alcántar, president of the Association of State Irrigation Users and with the director of the Central Board of Water and Sanitation, Mario Mata, in order to take actions in time to avoid that unfortunate events are repeated as in 2020.
He asserted that, in the past, the response of the people of Chihuahua was harsh, but not organized in the best way, which is why it is necessary to be prepared and organized among irrigation modules, district managers, and state and municipal authorities, so that they do not what happened in the past happens.
He also added that other organizations such as the Produce Foundation and the State Agricultural Council are willing to swell the front to defend the entity’s dams.
On the other hand, Mariano Jáquez Gandarilla, head of the Conchos Unit Limited Liability Company, considered that Chihuahua and all the actors involved in the use of water will maintain their position in defense of the vital liquid, in the face of a demand from Tamaulipas that has no reason to be, because it is also illogical to send water that will not arrive.
“If we put it in liters, for every 10 that they take from the dams, they will only reach two and eight will be lost, that is the reality,” he criticized.
He said he agreed with the expressions of Governor Maru Campos to defend the water from the dams, since there are around 50,000 families that live from agriculture and have also shown that they take care of the resource, use it rationally, so as to allow be looted again.
Jáquez finally reported that water users, state and municipal authorities, legislators and producers affected, will have to remain united in this cause, to stop from now on in an organized manner any attempt to extract water from the dams for this purpose, since it would have serious effects. in the following agricultural cycle.
