Mexican drought due partly to agricultural, urban activities - UNAM

The drought that is affecting Mexico is the result not only of the lack of rainfall, but also agricultural, urban and economic activities, according to Leticia Gómez Mendoza, researcher at Mexico's national autonomous university (UNAM).

Mexico's national water authority Conagua reported last week that 445 municipalities in the country were suffering the effects of drought at the end of May. Municipalities in 29 of Mexico's 31 states have been affected.

The drought is causing various problems in some regions of the country, UNAM stated in a release last Friday during world day to combat desertification and drought.

In the future, in the north of the country the authorities will not be capable of extracting more water from wells, since the water that is currently being extracted is very old and if extracted can threaten the geological composition of the land.

In the south of the country it will be necessary to develop new infrastructure to store water, Mendoza who is in charge of the climate change and biodiversity research group at UNAM.

In Mexico, 80% of the land used for agriculture activity suffers degradation due to overgrazing, excessive use of pesticides and poor water management, she noted.

The most vulnerable areas for land degradation, aridity and overexploitation of aquifers are located the northern states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Sonora.

Of Mexico's 653 aquifers, 105 are currently overexploited by industrial users, according to data from federal information site Infomex. Of this total, 15 aquifers are overexploited in Chihuahua, 11 in Sonora, five in Coahuila and three in Jalisco.