Lakeside area activists cried victory over this week’s news that plans for building a parallel line of the Chapala-Guadalajara aqueduct have been scrapped by the Guadalajara metro area’s water authority (Siapa).
In an announcement issued last Monday, Siapa director José Luis Hernández Amaya declared that the project will rest on the back burner at least through the six-year term of the incoming state and federal governments. Instead, he explained, the agency will tap into the Rio Verde to resolve the metro area’s growing water deficit.
The decision marks an abrupt about face for Siapa top brass who have steadfastly backed officials from the Jalisco Water Commission (CEA) and the National Water Commission (Conagua) in promoting the second line as the quickest, cheapest and best option. All have consistently argued that the twin aqueduct is urgently needed as a reliable backup for the aging pipeline system that currently supplies the metro area (ZMG) with about 60 percent of its water.
CEA officials insisted that after 22 years of round-the-clock operation, the original aqueduct pipeline is at risk of a major failure that could leave urban dwellers high and dry for an extended period. In addition, the second line would allow Siapa to draw its full legal allotment of 240 million cubic meters (m3) of lake water per annum, compared to current extraction capacity of just 180 million m3.
The unexpected change of posture may be attributed to the shifting political landscape. During the recent campaign season Jalisco gubernatorial candidates across the board pledged to scotch the second aqueduct in defense of Lake Chapala. Governor-elect Aristotoles Sandoval was actually the last man to jump on the bandwagon, waffling on the vague pro-pipeline position he held while serving as Guadalajara mayor.
Leaders of the Si al Lago-No al Acueducto Citizen’s Movement threw together a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Chapala waterfront to hail the ditching of the new aqueduct.
“We want to give credit to everyone who took part in the two-year fight to halt the project,” said spokesman Carlos Rosales. “We owe thanks to each person who joined the protest marches in Guadalajara, who helped pay for bus transportation and materials, who offered up their prayers, and even those who mocked our efforts because they strengthened and emboldened the movement.”
The group remains cautiously on guard and suspect of political treachery. “We have won the battle, but not the war,” warned Cristina Flores. “The next six years will fly by fast. We can’t rest easy until the second pipeline is definitively canceled and Siapa recognizes that the best solution is to fix its antiquated and leaky water network.”
Feeding the ZMG from the Rio Verde should eventually reduce some environmental pressures on the lake. But that is dependent upon completion of the Zapotillo-Purgatorio dam system, projected to go into operation in the summer of 2014. And a maelstrom of controversy still swirling around that project is every bit as potent as the aqueduct polemic.