Mexico: 57,000 Sinaloans do not have the right to water in their communities, up from 19,000 in January.
The number of people without piped water in Sinaloa has increased by 200 per cent, from 19,000 at the end of 2024 to 57,000 on 28 February.
Figures from the Sinaloa Secretariat of Social Welfare and Sustainable Development (SEBIDES) show that while on 30 December 2024 the number of Sinaloans without access to piped water was 19,273 in 31 municipalities, two months later, on 28 February, it had risen to 57,791 in 130 municipalities in Choix, Concordia, El Fuerte and Mocorito.
The municipality with the largest number of inhabitants is Mocorito, where 20,495 people in 22 municipalities receive piped water, mainly in the capital (5,926) and in the municipalities of Pericos (6,244), San Jorge (1,773) and Higuera de Los Vegas (1,278).
This is followed by El Fuerte, where water is supplied to 18,290 people in 53 municipalities with between 18 and 1,500 inhabitants.
In Choix, 14,363 people are supplied in 47 municipalities, 5,300 of them in the capital. In Concordia, water is supplied to 4,643 people in 9 municipalities, of which the most populated are Aguacaliente de Gárate and El Huajote, with 1,692 and 1,105 inhabitants respectively.
According to the National Water Commission’s (CONAGUA) Drought Monitor, on 28 February the entire territory of Sinaloa was affected by some degree of drought, mainly in the northern and south-central areas of the state.
Throughout 2024, almost the entire territory of Sinaloa was affected by permanent drought.
And, as SEBIDES figures show, the water crisis in Sinaloa is not only affecting the agro-industrial sector, which has had to limit the area sown for the 2024-2025 autumn-winter cycle due to the low availability of water in the reservoirs.
