Mexico builds aqueduct for dry industrial hub

Mexico has started building a new federally supported aqueduct aimed at easing a severe drought and water restrictions in industry-heavy Nuevo Leon state.

Federal and state officials announced 2 September that crews began working on new Ps10.4bn ($520mn) aqueduct that will connect Nuevo Leon's El Cuchillo reservoir with the Monterrey metropolitan area. The area is an auto manufacturing hub and fuel import thoroughfare.

The 100km (62-mile) aqueduct initiating in the city of China is expected to be ready by July 2023, according to interior secretary Adan Augusto Lopez.

The new aqueduct backed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador comes as the state's reservoirs have hit historically low levels because of an unprecedented drought.

Earlier this summer, Nuevo Leon's Cerro Prieto reservoir fell to just 1pc of its capacity while its La Boca reservoir outside Monterrey fell to 8pc. El Cuchillo fell to around 30pc.

These extremely low levels led the Monterrey metropolitan area, home to some 5mn people, to cut off water service for most hours of the day or for several days at a time.

Residents have protested and long lines for water have regularly formed at convenience stores, while government-owned water trucks have been attacked by angry residents.

Reservoirs like La Boca were largely reduced to fields of dirt and rocks.

The problem is not unique to Nuevo Leon. More than half of the country's municipalities experienced water shortages in July, with eight of 32 states suffering from drought.

In response, Lopez Obrador has declared the water shortages a matter of national security and lashed out at major beverage manufacturing companies, saying he would ban any increases on beer production in the Nuevo Leon area.

Local industrial chamber Caintra responded that a program created by manufacturing companies to donate water had given around 25mn cf to neighborhoods, schools and for other general use.

The chamber also pointed out that beer makers use less than 1pc of Nuevo Leon's water, and that prohibiting production increases would harm job growth and the economy.

Industrial companies overall use around 4pc of water in the state, 93pc of which comes from permitted wells and only 7pc from city water, according to Caintra. Agriculture, on the other hand, uses 71pc of the state's water, with residential consumption taking up 25pc, Caintra said.

Nuevo Leon is home to Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma Brewery, a subsidiary of Heineken, which produces popular Mexican beer brands including Dos Equis and Tecate. Monterrey is also home to Mexico's soft drink bottling giants Femsa and Arca Continental, which bottle Coca-Cola.

The new El Cuchillo aqueduct is expected to transport 5,000 liters/second of water, which would double the amount of water the state can transport from the reservoir.

The federal government is also looking at the possibility of building another aqueduct that would bring water to Nuevo Leon from the Panuco River in Veracruz state.

Still, critics have said the new infrastructure may not help solve Monterrey's water problems in the short term because the state will soon have to take its El Cuchillo aqueduct offline for maintenance. The aqueduct also moves 5,000 liters/second of water from the reservoir.

Nuevo Leon has received a reprieve over the past couple weeks as thunderstorms dropped significant amounts of water and even led to flash floods, causing some casualties.

Regional officials said 3 September that La Boca had received around 75 millimeters of new rainfall over two days, around one-fifth the amount it got during Hurricane Hanna in 2020. La Boca rose to nearly 30pc of its capacity by 5 September, but the Cerro Prieto reservoir remained at 1pc.

By Jens Gould