According to Conagua, in the second half of last August there were rains above the average, which caused a decrease in areas with drought in the country, however, the impact of the phenomenon is still higher than what was documented last year.
The Drought monitor of the National Water Commission (Conagua) detailed that as of August 31, 51.5% of the national territory was under some category of drought: from abnormally dry (D0) to exceptional (D4).
In comparison, for the same cut-off date, but from 2021, the record was 23.08%, that is, a difference of 28.42 points.
For the report of last August, Conagua detailed that “rains above the average were observed in the northwestern, north, central-western and southern regions of the country, as well as in the Yucatan Peninsula.”
The foregoing, he determined, helped reduce the drought categories of moderate, severe and/or extreme (D1, D2 D3) in the Baja California Peninsula, Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila.
In this last entity, the exceptional drought disappeared, and with it the record of this category in the country was eliminated. This condition first appeared this year last March.
The Drought Monitor specified that, although in some regions of Mexico the contributions of rainfall were visible, in others there were rainfall deficits.
The foregoing since the increase in areas of moderate (D1) and severe (D2) drought was documented in the regions of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí and Hidalgo.
“Moderate drought (D1) increased in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, while abnormally dry conditions (D0) increased mainly in areas of the south and southeast of the country,” Conagua reported.
In general, there was a record of 596 municipalities with a degree of drought (D1 to D4), while for the previous fortnight it was 652, that is, a decrease of 56 localities less.
As far as the abnormally dry category is concerned, until the end of last August there were 975 localities with this classification; as of the 15th of the same month, 936 were registered, that is, in this category there was an increase of 39 municipalities.
Most affected states
In the section of the federative entities, the Conagua document referred that, until last August, two states had all of their municipalities with drought.
The first, in alphabetical order, is Baja California; of its five municipalities, two are in moderate drought and three are in severe drought.
The other case is that of Querétaro, which has 18 localities, of which three have a moderate drought condition and the rest (15) with severe drought.
The state that follows them, as one of the most affected, is San Luis Potosí, which has a lack of water in 96.6% of its territory: two municipalities present abnormal drought, 17 moderate and 39 severe.
