The Director General of the National Water Commission (Conagua), Efraín Morales López, presented a report on the progress of the federal program “México Se Tecnifica”, which he described as “unprecedented worldwide.” The initiative aims to modernize irrigation across more than 200,000 hectares of farmland throughout the country in order to produce more food with less water.
During President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s morning press conference, Morales explained that around 76% of Mexico’s water resources are allocated to the agricultural sector, yet 34% is wasted due to deteriorated hydraulic infrastructure.
“With the modernization of the Agricultural Irrigation Districts, more than 2.8 billion cubic meters of water can be recovered—equivalent to three times the annual supply for Mexico City. This volume will be redirected to human consumption while producing more food with less water,” he emphasized.
The official highlighted the active participation of farmers in defining the specific work projects to be carried out in each Irrigation District, in coordination with all three levels of government, federal, state, and municipal.
Aaron Mastache Mondragón, Deputy Director General of Hydraulic Infrastructure, reported that ten months into Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, the main issues identified include: deteriorated canals, damaged diversion dams, malfunctioning floodgates, and plots still using flood or “surface” irrigation systems.
Mastache explained that the modernization efforts are divided into two components:
• Major infrastructure modernization, which includes lining and piping canals, installing automated floodgates, and measurement systems—expected to recover up to 40% of transported water.
• Parcel-level irrigation modernization, which involves land leveling, lined ditches, multi-gate pipelines, and drip, sprinkler, or micro-sprinkler irrigation systems—expected to recover up to 55% of water resources.
Currently, six projects are underway in the following Irrigation Districts:
• DR 075 Río Fuerte, Sinaloa
• DR 010 Culiacán-Humaya, Sinaloa
• DR 025 Bajo Río Bravo, Tamaulipas
• DR 026 Bajo Río San Juan, Tamaulipas
• DR 011 Alto Río Lerma, Guanajuato
• DR 001 Pabellón, Aguascalientes
In addition, 10 more projects are in the bidding stage, scheduled to begin construction between August and October: Río Mayo (Sonora), Región Lagunera (Coahuila-Durango), State of Morelos, Morelia-Queréndaro (Michoacán), Río Yaqui (Sonora), Valle de Juárez (Chihuahua), Delicias (Chihuahua), Tula, and two in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area.
Finally, the Deputy Director noted that beyond these priority zones, the government is also supporting other irrigation areas with subsidies for machinery and infrastructure, backed by a budget of $88.38 Million USD (1.66 billion pesos).
Related: Mexican Government Considers Sanctions Against SpaceX for Environmental Damage in Territorial Waters
Mexican Press Agency is part of ALMA, which is dedicated to news and information about Mexico and Mexicans in the United States and is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Focus, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Redwood City, California.
