Guadalajara residents concerned about dirty and unreliable tap water are being called to the streets Sunday, August 23 for a “Mega March for Water,” as a growing citizen movement pushes for greater public oversight of the metropolitan area’s troubled water system.
The march will gather at 10 a.m. at Parque Rojo and leave at 11 a.m. along Avenida Juárez for Plaza Liberación, where organizers will hold the “Agua KK Fest” — whose name plays on the Spanish word caca (“poop”) in a jab at the dirty water residents say is reaching their homes.
The event will begin at noon with workshops, children’s activities, music and other events. Organizers describe the festival as peaceful, family-oriented and nonpartisan.
The mobilization comes a week after scientists and activists trained residents in the barrio of Analco to conduct basic tests on water brought from their own homes — part of an expanding citizen monitoring network organized across the city with participation from ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara; the Mexican Institute for Community Development (IMDEC) and the campaign #ElSiapaQueQueremos.
At Saturday’s workshop, residents dipped inexpensive reactive strips into household water samples and compared the resulting colors with scales measuring pH, chlorine, nitrates, nitrites and other indicators. Samples showing signs of possible bacterial contamination could undergo an additional test for E. coli.
Organizers said the purpose is partly practical: giving residents information that can help them decide how to handle the water arriving at their homes. But the results are also being compiled as “citizen evidence” that can be used in public advocacy, legal actions and demands for official testing.
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