Inspectors from Chapala’s Urban Planning department slapped a closure order on the gates of a waterfront property located in Riberas del Pilar on Sunday, November 19 just two hours after being alerted that a backhoe was detected filling in federal land that pertains to Lake Chapala.
Department director René Ochoa declared that the project was halted for lacking a municipal construction permit for what appears to be the development of a private dock. He subsequently issued notification to the National Water Commission (Conagua) advising the agency of the measure since regulation and protection of the federal zone falls within its jurisdiction.
Last September activists for the defense of Lake Chapala presented formal complaints and evidence of multiple abuses of the shoreline at the headquarters of Conagua and the Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection (Profepa) in Mexico City. Despite official pledges that prompt actions would be taken to curtail violations of regulations regarding the use of shoreline land, the response has been nil. Conagua authorities in Jalisco went so far as to buck responsibility, claiming that the complaints must name persons accused of federal zone invasions.
Illicit appropriation of Chapala’s federal zone has been a recurrent problem for at least two decades. Mayor Alejandro Aguirre estimates that at least 50 percent of the waterfront land within the municipality’s boundaries has already been invaded by private parties. Expectations that the trend will continue in the coming months are rising as the lake level descends precipitately due to current drought conditions.