Guadalajara water crisis, Digi Mart USA News (Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico): In the context of his second government report, Governor Pablo Lemus faces a negative public assessment of his administration’s handling of the water crisis in the state of Jalisco. According to a survey conducted by Question Mark in partnership with El Heraldo de México, 35 percent of respondents rated the government’s response to the water problem as bad or very bad, while only 13.2 percent considered it good or very good.
Laura Haro, president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Jalisco, has described the water crisis in the Guadalajara metropolitan area as a multilevel problem. In an interview for the program “Horizonte H con Manuel Zamacona” on Heraldo Televisión, the PRI leader said that the lack of a comprehensive vision and the politicization of infrastructure projects have worsened a situation affecting more than one million people.
“This is undoubtedly one of the crises affecting more than one million people who live in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, where responsibility today is shared across the three levels of government,” the state party leader said. Hundreds of Jalisco residents have protested the poor quality of the water reaching their homes, and a large march was held from the Glorieta Minerva to Casa Jalisco.
Haro emphasized that the quality of water reaching households is deficient because of contamination in the Lerma-Chapala basin. According to her, the lack of sanctions against polluters and the absence of an authority regulating industrial waste have created a public health problem.
“The water that reaches our homes comes heavily contaminated from the Lerma-Chapala basin. No authorities are sanctioning those who pollute, there are no responsible parties, and that is why people are dying today,” said Laura Haro.
The party leader also questioned the operation of the Intermunicipal System of Drinking Water and Sewerage Services, pointing to administrative and technical shortcomings. She added that the solution does not lie solely in building new infrastructure if the source of contamination is not addressed.
“What good is building new infrastructure if the water keeps arriving contaminated and rotten in Guadalajara? There will be no treatment plant, no aqueduct, and no system with the most advanced technology that can make it potable if the source is not dealt with,” Haro said.
Finally, Haro said she will continue presenting proposals before the Congress of the Union to demand a budget reallocation that would address water, security and the countryside in a comprehensive way, arguing that a lack of political will has prevented concrete solutions for Jalisco families.
