Monterey, NL. The governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García Sepúlveda, met with officials from the National Water Commission (Conagua), to tour the Cerro Prieto and La Boca dams and the construction of the Libertad dam, with the purpose of accelerating the approval of the decree emergency due to water crisis in the state, at the federal level and obtain resources to guarantee the supply for more than five years.
“I spoke with Germán Martínez Santoyo, head of Conagua, today two officials are coming to check the water levels and explain what requirements we must send to speed up the declaration of an emergency.”
“Unfortunately there was no maintenance in pumping stations or in tanks and the drilling of wells was delayed; the Libertad dam did not even reach half of its construction, corrupt, crooks, they are not going to leave clean, thanks to the fact that we made agreements with the business and agricultural sector, they are going to give us the surplus of their wells, “said the president .
In a tour of the Libertad Dam, located in the Potosí River, on the border of the municipalities of Linares and Montemorelos, the head of Monterrey Water and Drainage Services, Juan Ignacio Barragán, stated that the original cost of the reservoir is 3,977.93 million pesos, where the state government will participate in a Pari passu (on equal terms) with Conagua.
The length of the curtain will be 1,250 meters, one of the longest in the country, with 47 meters high, the work began in 2020 and is estimated to end in late 2023 or early 2024 due to delays. To date, it is 33% complete.
They will open 8 deep wells
On the other hand, the governor said that given the forecast that there will be little rain this year, his administration has an emerging water supply plan. On the one hand, 6 of 8 deep wells will begin to be drilled.
In addition, 22 wells will be drilled in the Macroplaza, 30 existing wells will be rehabilitated, and 50 new wells will be drilled. With these 108 sources, there will be 2,674 more liters per second of water supply for the Monterrey Metropolitan Area.
After indicating that this drought problem is suffered by the states of the northeast region, the governor added that more water can be extracted from these 108 wells than a dam supplies on normal days. To date, 20 wells have been drilled in the Macroplaza.
He said that it is very worrying that even on days with very low temperatures, more water is consumed than other seasons, so they hope that with the economic reactivation and the return to classes, consumption will decrease.
He warned that it is not possible for Monterrey to spend more than twice the national average in terms of water consumption.
“I strongly advise your server Samuel García here, I tell the entire population, if we are responsible there will be no cuts. There are two, I do not see another, or it rains or we take care of the water; the first depends on other factors that are not in our hands and there is no good news about rain for now. The other thing that is in our hands is that we must take care of it, it is falling,” he added.