International reporting
Texcoco, the last lake in the Valley of Mexico in danger
Audio 02:45
In this photo from October 17, 2018, work is being carried out on an airstrip at Mexico City's new airport, in the dry lake bed of Lake Texcoco.
(Illustrative image) AP - Marco Ugarte
By: Gwendolina Duval
3 mins
Mexico City rests on a lake, or rather a complex hydrological system that rests on five basins.
Founded by the Aztecs, the city was created on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, where an eagle devoured a snake on cactus, according to legend.
Of this huge lake surrounded by mountains in the Valley of Mexico, there is not much left.
And in a megalopolis that is experiencing significant water stress, the challenge of protecting it is immense.
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“
That's the big collecting channel.
It is 60 meters wide by about 7 kilometers.
It was built to divert the watercourses of the nine rivers in the eastern zone.
But in reality, it causes the death of the lake.
»
Very close to the Mexico City airport in Texcoco, Jorge Daniel and the other members of the People's Front for the Defense of the Earth are indignant at this still functional canal.
“
We demand that it be dismantled
”.
Because shortly before the rainy season, this part of the lake of several thousand hectares looks more like a desert.
For 20 years, the association which brings together Texcoco inhabitants, has been fighting to save what is left of the lake and try to restore the precious wetland.
Adan Espinoza Roja remembers that it wasn't always like this.
“
I lived here for 73 years and experienced and saw the grandeur of this lake which was at its peak and there was wildlife and aquatic life.
»
Each year, Mexico City suffers a little more from the episodes of drought.
Dried up over the centuries, only a few canals remain in Xochimilco and the Texcoco basin to the east of the megalopolis.
It is the last water reserve of the capital.
It is used in particular to feed its 23 million inhabitants.
“
Since the arrival of the Spaniards, there has been a constant struggle to dry up the lake.
We haven't known how to live with water for 500 years.
»
Fernando Cordova is a professor, water specialist.
He explains that this lake functions as a regulating basin.
And the more the latter is weakened, the more it leads to disasters.
“
As the bottom of the lake is clayey, when we take water, it stays dry and the clay compresses.
But at the same time, it continues to rain every year, the water continues to claim its territory,
explains the professor
.
So every year, we flood more and so today's logic means that we put more infrastructure in place to evacuate the water more quickly.
It's a perverse dynamic: we take water from the basin and then we have more water
.
It's still paradoxical that a city like Mexico, sitting on 5 large lakes with a rainy season every year, finds itself short of water!
»
Texcoco has just been registered as a protected natural area.
A major rehabilitation project is underway, but it lacks results, according to Jorge Daniel: “
17 billion pesos, but they haven't managed to bring back a single drop of water.
And not for lack of resources, but for lack of will.
»
But for Pedro Alvarez Diego, also a member of the Front, it is already a big step thanks to the struggle of local communities.
“
It's a victory because simply: if since 2001, there had been no opposition.
I really don't think any of us would be here.
»
To find satisfactory water levels in Texcoco, specialists estimate that it would take at least 20 years.
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COP15 Desertification
Environment
Water
Mexico
Climate change