The first part of the Zapotillo-El Salto-La Red-Calderon aqueduct network—a system that the state governor says will “guarantee” metro-area Guadalajara’s water supply for the next 50 years—went into operation last week.
A new 39-kilometer pipeline transports water from the El Salto and La Red presas (dams) to its larger sibling, the Calderon Dam, which is Guadalajara’s largest supplier of H2O after Lake Chapala. All three dams are located in Jalisco between 30 to 60 miles west of the city.
The additional flow into the Calderon Dam will allow a further one cubic meter of water (1,000 liters) per second to be pumped to the metropolitan area via the existing distribution system.
Speaking at the inauguration, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro said projections showed that without this additional supply of water, around one million people in Guadalajara would be at risk of running out of the essential liquid by the beginning of April. “The Calderon Dam is currently at 28 percent of its capacity, an insufficient volume to supply the metropolis, which could face the intense drought and water shortages that Jalisco has suffered in the last three years,” the governor stated.
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