Following the water spout that provoked a debris slide that crashed through the Senderos del Lago housing development at El Chante last week, Jalisco Civil Protection Director Trinidad López Rivas warns that similar disasters could strike other points along Lake Chapala’s north shore during the remainder of the rainy season.
“The risks are still latent because we have a mountain range about 120 kilometers in length extending all the way along the Chapala lakeshore from Jocotepec close to Cuitzeo. That’s a very ample area where they are at risk,” the official declared.
López Rivas called on municipal authorities to tighten the construction regulations, so that cases such as Senderos, where 24 homes were damaged, are not repeated. He noted that since municipalities grant the licenses, they should demand that developers take responsibility for studies of the conditions of the land where they build to ensure security for homeowners.
The Senderos development, built in 2009 with authorization from the Jocotepec government, roused intense opposition from El Chante residents and environmentalists who voiced concerns at that time about inadequate infrastructure to support such a large cluster of homes. These concerns included the destruction of an ancient archaeological site and the obstruction of natural waterways that flow from the neighboring mountain range, now cited as an aggravating factor in the July 12 landslide.
History shows that natural attributes of the lakeshore region make it vulnerable to devastating floods and landslides. Records detail 17 previous debris flow disasters along the north shore corridor since 1946 when La Mojonera area west of Ajijic was hit. Mezcala was battered by a 1973 catastrophe that ended with 23 fatalities. Torrential storms unleashed wide swaths of mud and rocks over San Juan Cosalá and El Limon in September 1997 and again from the upper ranges of the Raquet Club to the village center in 2007.
Local governments have been lax in applying ample information provided in the Atlas of High Risk Zones for the region developed at the University of Guadalajara, in deference to developers who boost job opportunities and real estate sales with the increase of urban sprawl.