Sinaloa, the breadbasket of Mexico, is overexploiting its aquifers to sustain its agriculture.
Agricultural leaders describe the extraction of water from the subsoil as a tremendous and necessary aid, while civil society actors point out that if we are to continue to depend on the aquifers, we must also begin to work to replenish them.
The government of Sinaloa, a state known as “the breadbasket of Mexico” for its large agro-industrial sector, is overexploiting the state’s aquifers in an attempt to make the activity profitable given the limited availability of water in the reservoirs.
In the face of the severe drought that Sinaloa is experiencing, which is holding back agricultural activity in the state, the Sinaloa government, irrigation modules and farmers have found in groundwater a complement to try to achieve the irrigation necessary for the proper development of their crops.
However, it seems that even the extraction of this water from aquifers, many of which are already overexploited, will not make the current sowing cycle profitable for thousands of Sinaloa farmers.
On Monday, 13 January, during his weekly conference, the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, declared that in 2024 alone, 100,000 hectares in the state were irrigated with water extracted from the subsoil. Through an agreement with Conagua and the irrigation modules, he explained, the aim is for this extraction to guarantee the development and successful completion of the sown areas.
“Last year we were able to plant 100,000 hectares with this water alone, and today we are in a position, not to give a figure, but to say that all the land planted will have water.”
To this end, in recent years the Sinaloa state government has earmarked a budget line for water extraction: 14 million pesos for 2023 and 20 million pesos for 2024 and 2025. In 2024, however, additional funds will be allocated, bringing the total to 40 million pesos for this programme.
***
However, the exploitation of groundwater is not new, as from 2012 to 2020 the state of Sinaloa has doubled the level of groundwater extraction. Valeria Petrone, from the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Sinaloa Water Resilience Programme, explainS:
“If we measure 2019 (1,093.30 hm3/year) against 2020 (1,438.92 hm3/year), we see an increase of 31.61 per cent from 2019 to 2020 alone, and an increase of 115.63 per cent in extraction levels between 2020 and 2012.”
This means that of the 14 aquifers that run through Sinaloa, eight are already overexploited, according to the latest figures from Conagua’s National Water Information System.
The aquifers with negative water availability are the Mocorito, Culiacán, Elota, Piaxtla, Quelite, Presidio and Baluarte rivers. Only the aquifers of the rivers Fuerte, Sinaloa, San Lorenzo, Escuinapa Valley, Agua Grande Lagoon and El Carrizo had positive values.
***
But these official Conagua figures do not correspond to reality, as they do not take into account a significant number of unregistered wells that exist throughout Sinaloa, says Sandra Guido. The president of Conselva warns that Conagua estimates groundwater resources using a formula that does not take into account the thousands of unregistered wells and clandestine water withdrawals, especially in rural areas.
“The reality is much more serious, but decisions are made on the basis that there is water in the aquifers.”
For his part, Mauro Espinoza Ortiz, a Doctor of Landscape Conservation, pointed out that it would be very useful to be able to constantly monitor the state’s aquifers. As part of his doctorate at CIIDIR Sinaloa, Espinoza Ortiz developed a model for measuring the Guasave Valley aquifer, which he says takes into account more variables than those required by the official NOM-011-CONAGUA-2015 standard and measures the average available water with an error of less than 10 per cent.
For him, the water in the aquifers can be used, but with constant monitoring to help make decisions about its sustainability over time:
The intention is to continue to use it, but without reaching the limit, which has happened in many aquifers.”
Regarding unaccounted for wells, he said it was well known that no one would cut back on their crops during a drought.
“Many of these wells are not included in the concession volumes. Those variables that are not accounted for, we have to see how to account for them in the future.”
***
Meanwhile, farmers in Sinaloa see groundwater extraction as a necessity that must continue and even be institutionalised in public policy. Enrique Riveros, president of the Asociación de Agricultores del Río Culiacán (AARC), believes that groundwater extraction is urgent and must be a constant:
“This is another thing we must learn from this past cycle, that the water rescue programme must be a constant. Without this water rescue, I think it will be very difficult to achieve even the 300,000 hectares of maize that were planned.”
Similarly, the president of the Federation of Agrarian Communities in Sinaloa, Miguel Angel Lopez Miranda, considers the extraction or rescue of water from the subsoil to be a very important primary aid. Like Riveros, he is calling on the Sinaloa state government to support pumping. “That a programme of support be created for the risk modules in the field of water rescue and the extraction of water from wells,” he said.
Marte Vega, president of the Confederation of Agricultural Associations of the State of Sinaloa (CAADES), said that water extraction was an enormous and necessary help.
***
In the case of maize, where only 30 per cent of the land has been approved for planting, only one irrigation and two supplementary irrigations have been approved. “But in some cases, where there are wells, up to three or four irrigations can be authorised,” adds Miguel Ángel López Miranda.
“We will definitely have a very limited water cycle, there will be crops that we will grow with minimal irrigation. The wells are going to be a very important and fundamental help in all of this.”
Jesús Olivas Barraza, a farmer from the south of the municipality of Culiacán, said that two aid packages would not be enough to produce a quality crop. “The grain will not be sufficiently fattened because of the lack of water,” he warned. For the current autumn-winter cycle, Jesús has planted chickpeas, a crop that requires little water. Not only can chickpeas cover 100 per cent of his 12 hectares, but they only need to be irrigated once. In previous cycles, when he planted maize, it did poorly. Because the plant did not have enough moisture, the grain was not fattened and when he threshed it, it “fell apart”.
“If the grain is not fattened enough, it will be a little churid and when it is threshed, it will break. Then the grain is definitely no longer useful for the industry; it goes straight to a livestock farmer to be sold, which is what I did.”
Regarding the extraction of water from the subsoil, Jesús simply said that “if you have a well, you are very likely to use it.
***
Faced with a vision of water management based on the construction of wells, dams and reservoirs, Sandra Guido questions the Sinaloa government’s lack of effort to make aquifer replenishment more efficient. This is despite the fact that the necessary technology and low-cost solutions are available.
“If you want to continue to depend on the aquifer, let it be replenished. Then do what needs to be done so that the next time it rains, the aquifer is replenished.”
The president of Conselva explained that the government of Sinaloa can work to promote effective rainfall, which is nothing more than the percentage of rain that manages to recharge the aquifers and turn into rivers and streams. This effective rainfall, he added, is promoted through green infrastructure, which, unlike grey infrastructure such as canals and dams, uses natural elements to take advantage of their biological processes. he lamented:
“But there is also no effort to recharge these aquifers when the technology exists.”
***
At the federal level, Claudia Sheinbaum‘s government has announced that the two largest irrigation districts in Sinaloa will be electrified. Number 10, the Humaya Canal of the López Mateos Dam, and Number 75, the Valle del Fuerte.
These projects account for 78 per cent of the federal funds that the federal government will devote to water conservation as part of the National Agreement on the Human Right to Water and Sustainability.
They also represent the largest effort to conserve water in Sinaloa in the face of the drought, which has left the state’s reservoirs at an average of less than 20 per cent capacity and reduced the amount of land cultivated due to low water availability.
