LETTERS

Editor,

It is satisfying to see that San Miguel’s municipal water agency, along with the state water agency, is actively promoting a reduction in the volume of water used by town residents.

However, neither government seems to address the wasteful use of water from our shrinking state aquifer for gardening, grass, golf courses, swimming pools or agriculture. 

The Mexican Constitution states that all water is property of the nation, yet when you examine the daily use of water – vast sprinkling systems on ranchos and in our new suburbs – you see how the rich waste vast volumes of it. 

Just drive down the road to Dolores Hidalgo and see the sprawling water fed green fields in El Girasol, Rancho San Benito and Rancho Santa Clara. Similar water waste is visible in the Canterra and Candaleria suburban developments and of course soon in the Ventanas Golf Club.

There is no visible evidence that governments do anything to force the rich rancheros and suburbanites to reduce their wasteful use of the nation’s water. This is especially true in Guanajuato where the ultra-conservative PAN government would ideologically never limit water availability for the rich.

Mexican agriculture uses about 78 percent of the nation’s water to grow food, grain and animal feed products, much of which is exported. The poor, rural population in Mexico uses just 2 percent of the nation’s total water.

The wasteful use of water in Mexico is a classic, long running, political class divide. The rich were given large land holdings and water access from the PRI party when it ruled the country for 71 years and continue to have essential free water access under PAN.

Any idea how much water former PAN president Vicente Fox is using on his new large land holdings in Guanajuato? Does he pay any water fees or taxes?

The federal Comision National del Agua de Mexico has the responsibility to enforce the nations water law—La Ley de Aguas Nacionales. But where is there evidence of legal enforcement against the rich by the federal water agency?

How can political parties allow the rich to continue to steal our water when it could end up desertifying large parts of the country and radically reducing the availability of food and water for a large percentage of citizens?

Jock Ferguson