Outgoing Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro has acknowledged that his administration fell short in tackling a major ecological challenge: the restoration and cleanup of the Santiago River, one of the most polluted waterways in Mexico.
The ambitious “Revivamos al Río Santiago”(Revive the Santiago) project aimed to treat 14,000 liters of wastewater per second, discharged into the river by industries, small farms, communities and residential developments. However, Alfaro admitted that only 8,000 liters per second are currently being treated at the 20 water treatment plants dotted along the trajectory of the Santiago River in Jalisco.
Despite being the costliest project of his administration, with seven billion pesos spent in total, Alfaro conceded that fully sanitizing the river will take decades. He entrusted his successor, Pablo Lemus, to continue the effort over the coming six years.
This acknowledgment marks a stark reversal from Alfaro’s statements in July, when the state government launched a media campaign touting the program as a huge success. Observers speculated that the campaign was a response to persistent criticism from NGOs that the river remains heavily contaminated.
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