By Donald Patterson
Most importantly, the green fund paid for three of the team’s investigations into the actual environmental conditions in important regions of the municipality and beyond. As you can see from the map in the “Results” graphic,they covered over 111,000 hectares (about 430 square miles) or 105 micro-watersheds. Out of these studies, we now know not only the answers to our three questions but also what the watershed ecology science indicated needed to be done in order to restore proper function. We now had environmental management plans for a large part of the municipality. All of this completed without using taxpayer monies. This pleased my wife. And I was pleased because 12 graduate students got their University of Queretaro (UAQ) Master’s degrees in Watershed Ecology and Management for the work done in our municipality.
The green fund was also utilized for beginning work rehabilitating the watershed, as indicated by the previously mentioned studies. Sometimes the fund was the municipality’s contribution to already existing Federal and State programs that dealt with things like soil rehabilitation, reforestation, and environmental education. The “Funding Invested in Environmental Actions” graphic indicates the funding sources: SEMARNAT (the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources), CONAFOR (the National Forest Service), and SEDESOL (the Federal Social Development agency), among others. It’s important to note that both USAID and Fondo México funded a specialized study concerning the issue of paying for environmental services performed by Agustin Madrigal and Josh Ellsworth. The right side of the graphic shows the actions taken with the funding. The sources shown in the graphic invested a total of over 21 million pesos in watershed restoration and education.
The green fund also allowed us to continue the potable well-water testing in the municipality begun during the previous administration. Finally, we increased the number of wells tested from the original 110 to 140. By the middle of 2009, we had discovered more than 10,000 people in our municipality drinking water with quantities of fluoride above the national norm. As a result of these numbers, we installed 13 water harvesting systems for schools in 11 communities where we found the highest fluoride concentrations. For the highest case of fluoride—in Agustin Gonzalez—we also installed a system in their medical clinic.
“I want you to get to the bottom of our environmental problems affecting the municipality.»—Jesus Correa, 2006.
