By Francisco Peyret
The ongoing conflict over the administration of SAPASMA (San Miguel de Allende’s water operator) has brought with it a series of very interesting reports and citizen forums. One of these is the group called YosoySanMiguel (I am San Miguel) dealing with the water problem in San Miguel.
The urban growth for the population is quite evident, in addition. Everyone also understands that with the construction of the San Miguel de Allende—Dolores Hidalgo corridor, real estate construction will increase. Whether we like it or not, whether we agree or not, it seems a fact that the number of developments is increasing, especially along this corridor named by Governor Diego Sinhue as Independence Boulevard.
Currently some neighborhoods and many communities already suffer from a lack of water, or the quality of the water. According to information from the Caminos de Agua Civil Association, the municipalities of the northeast of the state have heavy metals found in many wells in the region. Faced with a problem so vital for the future of the residents of San Miguel, it is imperative that we try to see the problem from a broader perspective and from the outside.
In 2012, the El Rialito Dam, located in the municipality of San Luis de la Paz, was inaugurated. The project was designed to solve the water supply of the city of San Luis Potosí and Celaya (by the way, this project has considered San Miguel de Allende). In its first stage, the National Water Commission has already delivered the first aqueduct to carry water to San Luis Potosí. The second stage is pending, and is projected to bring an aqueduct to the city of Celaya. The project required an investment of about 3,000 million pesos so it has been put on hold.
However, recent events have dramatically changed the federal and state approach to solving the water problem for the State of Guanajuato. Faced with the impossibility of carrying out the Zapotillo project (to bring water from Jalisco to Guanajuato), the federal and state authorities announced that the aqueduct that will bring water to Celaya, Salamanca, Irapuato, Silao and León will come from the Solís Dam, located in the municipality of Acámbaro.
These announcements put the second stage of the Rialito on hold and left San Miguel de Allende out of the state and federal investment program in water matters. It is clear that in for both the short and medium term the solution of bringing water from other latitudes will remain pending.
The first question we have to ask ourselves is: What is left to the citizens of San Miguel? The immediate answer is to make do with what we have! Which leads to the second question—what do we have? In terms of investment, there are two very important projects on the horizon. One is updating the water treatment plant, which is around 20 years old, and the other is to build another water treatment plant of the same size. It is important that these improve the quality of water in the Allende Dam. One example is the proliferation of water lilies which are a consequence of contamination of the existing surface water.
The municipal government recently announced an agreement with the French company Altereo to have a system that will allow SAPASMA to promptly detect water leaks from the distribution system. It is estimated that at least 45% of the water is distributed through underground pipes. This type of system helps other cities save huge volumes of water; it also produces savings in public works costs because huge holes in the streets need not be opened to find a leak.
On the other hand, we have a good number of social organizations such as Caminos de Agua, Salvemos al Río Laja, among others, working for several years with communities in training and installation of rainwater harvesting systems. Given the number of rural localities (more than 500) it is impossible for SAPASMA to cover a network to provide water to the entire population. For this reason it is essential that these types of measures become consistent public policies to respect the constitutional right of all the residents in the country. There can be no better public investment than one of this kind.
We have the recently written about “Acuaférico” and it is worth reading this article published by Asistencia San Miguel; El “Acuaférico.” It is a municipal project full of uncertainty signed by Romeo Robles of Caminos de Agua. The amount of investment needed for it has been questioned. This would be for new subdivisions, and the cost of operation is not clear nor the quality of the water that the system is delivering. Once the investment has been made, and since the municipality is not part of the federal and state government’s public investment program for water, it seems that we need to support this project. We need to make sure that SAPASMA provides water distributor to popular neighborhoods in the upper area of the city. There should be no problem if they can assure us of the quality of the water.
If we apply ourselves by supporting these actions, we will be achieving better administration and distribution of water, but this does not solve the underlying problem, especially in the long term. Let us say that we would be better serving the distribution of water for the present
It is evident that the excessive growth of houses can lead us to an uncertain future. It is not about keeping San Miguel in a time bubble, it is about growing with very clear and strict rules and regulations to get us on track in a sustainable development.
Nature-based solutions (NbS)
After the COP in Paris, some 25 international programs have emerged to financially address all kinds of problems related to water and climate change in Latin America. There are two thematic lines that all these programs follow in a timely manner;
1. Climate change adaptation measures start with the premise that ecosystems and natural resources are definitively being impacted. That means that aquifers, forests, bodies of water, etc., will no longer return to their original state. We can recover and regenerate nature but the result will always be different from what we had.
2. Climate change is a phenomenon that is advancing year after year. It is essential that municipalities, cities and citizens adapt to a different reality, where the community in general accepts that natural resources are limited and that they must be managed in a different way.
It is important to bring up these issues because if we are talking about water and therefore the environment, we have to generate solutions at the local level, taking into account the guidelines and actions that are already being implemented in other cities around the world. If we want to improve our planning, we must also improve the management of information in analyzing our problems and how we are to build projects thinking about the future.
Municipal development planning must be done in two very clear dimensions. As a starting point we must take into account that we are an inherent part of a basin. For San Miguel these are the Támbula-Picachos and Alto Río-Laja sub-basins. The first dimension is rural, where conservation zones, recovery and regeneration zones must be precisely defined and, depending on each case, productive reconversion may be necessary or a more sustainable agriculture.
The second dimension is urban. Here the fundamental factor is legislation, and each municipality must enforce the rules of the game. If there is going to be pressure because of real estate growth, then compliance with the law is basic in the care of natural resources.
The natural solutions being applied in the first dimension are reforestation, soil regeneration, border systems, application of techniques to filter water to aquifers. These, among others, are the adaptation measures designed for the medium and long term. In the second dimension, the creation of green spaces, recovery of streams, collection of water in public spaces and the installation of eco-technologies, are important investments—all with short-term results.
The last question is, does San Miguel have the capacity to implement a different development project? The answer is yes. It is clear that San Miguel has the people and community intelligence to do it, but the key is to plan and build with the participation of citizens. This is no longer optional, it is imperative.
