How will the real-time measurement of agricultural wells in La Laguna that Conagua will implement work?

Extractions from agricultural wells will be measured in real time. By agreement between the plaintiffs in the appeal and Conagua, telemetric meters will be installed in 200 wells and an agreement will be signed with the UNAM Institute of Geosciences to have a model for managing groundwater.

These actions will allow the National Water Commission (Conagua) to continuously, accurately and in real time monitor and evaluate the extraction of national waters and strengthen the application of control and surveillance mechanisms to promote proper management and preservation of the liquid.

The director of the Northern Central Basin Agency of Conagua, Juan Gabriel Riestra Beltrán and the complainants in the amparo trial, signed and presented to the District Judge an agreement in which commitments and acts were established that the authority is obliged to carry out in compliance with the sentence issued by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which ruled in favor of the organizations by considering that the aquifer has been overexploited due to omissions by the federal agency.

The parties reported the signing of an agreement between Conagua and the Institute of Geosciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with the purpose of requesting the Institute as an academic entity to develop a model for the management of groundwater in the recovery of the operation of the Main Aquifer of the Laguna Region, which will allow the identification and establishment of specific actions to be considered within the Work Subprogram. The model will be the management instrument for the groundwater of the Aquifer under different scenarios.

Another commitment by Conagua was the acquisition and installation of telemetric meters in wells for agricultural use within the Main Aquifer of the Laguna Region. In the first stage, there will be 200 devices for priority and convenient areas, according to the analysis and recommendations made by the UNAM Institute of Geosciences.

This first stage will be implemented no later than August of this year; the following stages and the number of meters to be installed will be defined in December of this year.

It was also agreed to begin the process for the conversion of the NMX-AA-179-SCFI-2018 regulation into the Mexican Official Standard to establish the mandatory installation of telemetric meters.

The River Basin Authority will push for the inclusion of this proposal in the Joint Work Program before the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).

It was noted that the procedure for enforcing the judgment, despite its complexity, is gradually advancing with firm steps towards the objective set by the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the complainants.

It should be remembered that civil society organizations and private citizens obtained protection in favor of the La Laguna Principal Aquifer in March 2023, when, unanimously, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled in their favor in terms of the overexploitation of the Aquifer due to the omissions of Conagua.

The draft ruling Amparo en reseña 543/2022 approved by the Supreme Court determined 19 administrative omissions incurred by the responsible authorities (both Conagua national and the regional river basin organization and Semarnat), as well as the effects with which they must correct said omissions and guarantee the sustainable preservation, supply and sanitation of the water resources of the Aquifer, in such a way that its access to the complaining party is not compromised, nor is the access of future generations that live in the lagoon region.