With the aim of raising public awareness on Lake Chapala’s plight, local artist Conrado Contreras has designed a sculptural installation piece with an environmental message to be put on display during next weekend’s three-day Tequila Festival (see story below).
The sculpture consists of a stack of seven square blocks made up of panels of pressed wood painted on the exterior with a water motif. The form and title of the work, Siete Metros Cubicos, represents the maximum pumping capacity of the Santa Cruz de la Soledad facility that extracts water from Lake Chapala to feed the Guadalajara metro area: seven cubic meters per second.
Contreras calculates that, at that rate, more than five billion cubic meters of water have been sucked out of the lake over the past six years – an amount roughly equivalent to twice the lake’s current volume. The artist hopes viewers will puzzle over the question: “Where did all that water go?”The installation will include hard data about Mexico’s largest lake and possible solutions for preserving a natural treasure while coping with the water needs of urban dwellers.