water commodity, water habitat-mexico chooses

Mexico's national water agency, CONAGUA, signed an agreement to lock up water basins across Mexico as ecological "water reserves," under a new paradigm of national water management proclaimed as "reclaiming water" from human use "for the environment." CONAQUA is working with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to manage this new policy direction.


In practice, the WWF-CONAGUA water reserve agreement, signed last December 15th and touted as a global model, aims to prohibit any new water projects, under the pretext of protecting a so-called "natural" water cycle.


The question that must be answered is, how secure are the water services for the nation that supply drinking water, hydropower, and water for agriculture?


Interesting that the new direction is selected in the midst of the country's worst drought in over half a century. 


This puts an end to Mexico's Northwest Hydraulic Plan (PLHINO) -- which would have allowed Mexico to adequately feed its own population, and more, with food from its northern regions alone.


Reports indicate Tarahumara Indians are dying of starvation in the sierras of Chihuahua - a marker of what will quickly become generalized among the more than 20 million Mexicans already living in so-called "food poverty." 


2012 opened with hyperinflation of the prices of corn, beans, and meat: the price of beans increasing by over 100%; and corn and meat prices rising by over 50%. 


The head of one of the leading agricultural sales associations, Victor Suarez, yesterday said that nearly 50% of all basic food production was lost in 2011, calling it the worst agricultural year in 80 years.


Sinaloa, the leading corn producing region in the country and one of principal beneficiaries were the PLHINO built, fell short of its usual production of close to five million tons of corn this harvest cycle, because, after losing 80% of the harvest last year to freezing, farmers had to re-seed, which led to greater water use, and the consequent depletion of Sinaloa reservoirs. 


Those reservoirs currently hold 4 billion cubic meters of water, as opposed to their usual 15 billion at this time, which means that the area now being planted for corn, beans, and other crops is 50% less than usual. This is a huge blow to national production, coming on top of the drought affecting 50% of the national territory and chronic collapse of the economy.


The head of the PRI party congressional delegation, Francisco Rojas, warned that if 2011 was catastrophic for the rural sector, 2012 will be worse. 


The food problem will hit the cities, he warned, as meager stocks of corn and other grains drive up the prices of items in the basic food basket. Nor will there be the possibility of purchasing food abroad, given that large producing nations such as the United States and Argentina have announced that their production will not be sufficient to supply world demand, he said. 


Rojas called for all government institutions to be unified around the commitment to ensure no peasant goes thirsty or hungry, and to keep the prices of food stable, as well as protecting people from foreign financial and economic threats.


Let me guess - farmers and indigenous people are not among the officials from CONAGUA or WWF.