Checkered doesn’t even begin to describe the tragi-comical saga of the Zapotillo Dam project in north-eastern Jalisco.
In 2006, the National Water Commission (Conagua) first proposed that a dam be built on the Rio Verde in the Los Altos region of Jalisco. The resulting water supply would serve to help slake the thirst of the thriving city of Leon to the north, and to a lesser extent, the metropolis of Guadalajara to the southwest. Despite many objections, construction began in 2009 with the goal of wrapping things up by 2013. Four years after that optimistic end date the dam is far from complete and the project is still immersed in controversy.
The Lerma-Chapala Basin, which includes parts of Jalisco, CDMX, Guanajuato, Michoacán and Queretaro, has had a long history of water-related troubles. According to a case study by Conagua published in 2012, the basin produces 53 percent of the country’s exports and has a population of 10.44 million people, 77 percent of whom lives in cities.
The Lerma-Chapala-Santiago hydrologic system provides this large, central macro-region with most of its water, which mainly resides in the water table.
Rival cities such as Leon and Guadalajara – in addition to smaller municipalities and rural communities – are engaged in a never-ending tug-of-war over water, a not-uncommon power struggle in places whose exploding populations overtax the environment’s ability to sustain them. Ethnicity, class, rural vs. urban and eminent domain vs. regional sovereignty are some of the key factors in the perpetual struggle for life-sustaining resources.
While these sprawling municipalities duke it out over the Lerma-Chapala Basin’s store of precious fluids, smaller communities and municipalities have difficulty making their presence and voices known.
Acasico, Palmarejo and Temacapulin are three villages ensnared in this tussle.
Conagua’s original plan for the Zapotillo Dam called for a height of 105 meters, meaning that these three tiny communities – total population about 500 people – would be submerged. In an attempt to placate residents, the federal government fashioned a pre-planned settlement, Nueva Temacapulin, at a higher elevation out of reach of the would-be flood waters. Compensation payments were also agreed, although many residents refused to accept the offers and vowed to stay put in their homes come what may.
Construction began amid heated opposition from many national and international NGOs. Their legal maneuvers resulted in a 2015 Supreme Court ruling to suspend the dam’s construction in order to stop its height from exceeding a maximum of 80 meters and flooding the three communities. Workers were forced to down tools and the structure on the Rio Verde has languished unfinished for the past three years.
While abiding by the court’s ruling, Conagua has steadfastly maintained that an 80-meter dam wall is untenable.
And having previously vowed to help residents of the three villages save their communities, Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval has had an about-face and now says that there is simply no way the dam can be any shorter.
“A wall of less than 105 meters is a false debate,” Sandoval said. “An 80-meter dam simply cannot be because it would not be able to supply water to Guadalajara, Los Altos and Leon – some ten million people.”
Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Alfaro also supports a 105-meter dam, but on the proviso that all the water comes to Guadalajara and other parts of Jalisco, given that the project is located in this state. His stance, however, disregards inter-state accords signed almost two decades ago in which Jalisco and Guanajuato agreed to share the Rio Verde’s waters.
Conagua and Sandoval’s position appears to be supported by a study carried out by the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) that justifies the dam’s original 105-meter height.
Temacapulin community mouthpiece, Mexican Movement for People Affected by Dams and the Defense of Rivers (MAPDER), says that the tenor of the actions undertaken by UNOPS and federal authorities has been blatantly undemocratic.
“Let’s remember that UNOPS’ decisions and processes haven’t passed through any sort of consultation with citizenry and that from the beginning they’ve ignored the communities that could be affected by the construction of the dam,” a MAPDER statement said. “The UNOPS interacted with the community in a very rude and cold manner, flouting the principles of participation and respect for human rights as expressed in the United Nations’ philosophy.”
At the end of the piece, MAPDER’s organizers issued four demands: That the UNOPS immediately publish the findings of the study, explain how the dam will be used and for whom, initiate a citizen-led review of said study, and finally, that any decision-making based on it be suspended pending the approval of the affected communities.
UNOPS, it should be noted, is an independent, self-funded entity. As such, to say that the United Nations is behind and backs the recent study is imprecise and even willfully deceptive, noted a recent statement from Morena (Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional), the political party led by left-wing maverick Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Whether or not the Supreme Court’s 2012 height-limiting decree and subsequent ruling to suspend construction have enough teeth to stop pro-dam forces from raising the concrete curtain and flooding the three centuries-old villages should become apparent soon, if governor Sandoval’s show of determination is any indication.