Germán Martínez Santoyo, director of the National Water Commission (Conagua) reported that more than 150 second-level managers and administrative managers of the agency have been removed for committing acts of corruption and that the audits on the matter continue.
“With the support of the (Secretariat of) Public Function, and all the supervisory bodies help us review and determine where there are suspicions or evidence of corruption,” he explained.
In a work meeting, with the Commission of Hydraulic Resources of the Chamber of Senators, he explained that the acts of corruption detected by the agency’s managers are related to the delivery of a greater volume of water for less payment, and with different bidding processes. .
The official explained that Conagua monitors procedures in real time with anti-corruption locks and traceability, and that there are measurement standards for users to declare the volume actually used in order to eliminate tax evasion.
The bidding procedures, he assured, have double control.
Conagua has 12,496 employees, of which 60% are men and 40% women; 7,946 are unionized (63.5%) and 4,550 (36.5%) non-unionized.
drought situation
With regard to the issue of drought that is recorded in most of the country, the official indicated that it is normal and occurs every year.
Drought conditions in Mexico continued their upward trend of recent weeks. According to the latest drought monitor, prepared by Conagua, detailed that, until last April 15, 80.02% of the territory is with some level of affectation.
This percentage is higher than that registered a previous fortnight, which stood at 74.22, that is, an increase of 5.8 points.
The Conagua detailed that the abnormally dry category (D0) increased in portions of Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, central Veracruz, Puebla, Mexico City, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca and Chiapas, these two entities have historically been classified as areas of water abundance. .
The drought monitor also confirmed that the areas with moderate to severe drought (D1 to D2) in the country continued to increase, with the northwestern, north central, eastern and western areas being the most affected.
For March 31, both categories added 42.81%, while for the most recent fortnight the total was 49.03%, an increase of 6.22 points.
With regard to extreme drought (D3), the Conagua report indicated that there was also a slight increase. The percentage of the fortnight of the previous month was 3.13%, for the first of April it was 4.02.
While in the category of exceptional drought, Conagua reported that only 0.20% of the territory is under that condition. However, he confirmed that there was an increase with the previous registration.
No water in dams
On the other hand, according to the National Water Information System Monitoring of the Main Dams of Mexico as of April 21 of this year, of the 210 large reservoirs that are registered, 90 are below 50% of their capacity. storage.
The dams with zero storage are El Peaje, located in San Luis Potosí, and Hermosillo, located in Sonora. These are followed by the Copándaro De Corrales dam, in Michoacán, with 0.7% of its capacity.