Now in the “lame duck” period of his administration, President Felipe Calderon visited Jalisco on Wednesday, flaunting his record on public works in the state.
Calderon inaugurated a new stretch of highway and visited the still-in-construction Agua Prieta water-treatment plant, both of which have benefited from significant federal funding.
“This highway was practically forgotten,” said Calderon, upon opening the new, 78-kilometer stretch of road between Lagos de Moreno and Villa de Arriaga in San Luis Potosi, which was planned 11 years ago and delayed for six years due to local legal disputes.
The highway cost 1.2 billion pesos, paid for by the Federal Transport Agency (SCT), and will halve the driving time from Lagos de Moreno to San Luis Potosi from an hour and a half to just 45 minutes.
“Calderon has done four times more for Jalisco than (his predecessor Vicente) Fox ever did,” Governor Emilio Gonzalez said this week.By the end of Calderon’s term in office, the federal government will have invested 16 billion pesos in roads infrastructure in Jalisco. In 2012 alone, the state will have received 2.7 billion pesos of federal investment in public works.
Nationally, more kilometers of road have been built or renovated under Calderon than in the two previous administrations combined. “We will end up with 22,000 kilometers of new or modernized highways,” said Calderon. Of these, 888 kilometers are in Jalisco, dwarfing the 202 kilometers completed during the Fox administration.
During his state visit, Calderon also went to oversee construction of the Agua Prieto water-treatmant plant. The plant will benefit 3.4 million inhabitants of the metropolitan zone, as well as decreasing pollution in the Rio Santiago, thus reducing health risks for those who live beside the river.
The federal government has provided 39 percent of the 2.6 billion pesos necessary to fund the project. Work is now 70 percent complete and the plant is envisaged to begin operating in late 2013.
Purgatorio Dam
One public work which does require more funding and a water source is Jalisco’s Purgatorio Dam project. Although it currently lacks the necessary hydraulics to send any water stored to the metro area, the project is up and running.
The dam, to be constructed at the confluence of the Verde and Santiago rivers, is located at the borders of Ixtlahuacan del Rio and Zapotlanejo. It will be able to hold 3.5 million cubic meters of water. With an estimated cost of 774 million pesos, it will be financed by the state and federal governments.
The cost of building the pumping stations and aqueducts from Purgatorio to transport the water to Guadalajara is estimated at around 4 billion pesos.
“The water, wherever it is, cost what it may cost, should be used because, well… we aren’t going to let it go by,” said Jorge Lara Venezuela of the State Water Commission.