Work on the Purgatorio Dam on the Verde River to the north of Guadalajara began in 2013, with the main aim of receiving and storing water from the Zapotillo Dam under construction further upstream.
As that project stalled, plans changed, and the El Salto-La Red-Calderón system (outlined above) became the favored delivery option. Work on the Purgatorio system basically stopped with the dam less than one-fifth complete. Although the National Water Commission vowed to complete the work and has invested millions of dollars into the project, it has been in limbo since 2018, with no projected startup date on the horizon.