“There is a bleak outlook,” said Rogelio Pacheco, mayor of Buenaventura. “The water body of this dam is practically without water. We see total devastation, the truth is yes, we are being punished by nature, the truth is in an extraordinary way.”
Livestock from nearby farms have come to cool off in the little wet mud that remains, but the depletion of the dam has left many farmers suffering, unable to irrigate their crops.
In previous planting seasons, wells helped irrigate the land, but amid the drought, farmers decided to leave the land unplanted or use scarce water to prevent long-standing walnut groves from dying.
“The levels of the agricultural wells are going down,” said local farmer Angel Rueda. “Here we have this area, where we are located, and we are no longer able to plant, because of the wells that have gone down, because of the lack of water. We have already gone several years, two years in a row, without rain.”
Bees are dying from drought
Local beekeepers have also been affected.Bees are dying in large numbers because of the lack of rain has drastically reduced wild flowering, forcing them to seek pollen in crop fields, where herbicides kill both the pests and them.
There is almost no vegetation in the landscape right now, due to the drought itself, so the bee has no alternative flowering area where it can obtain nectar and pollen and it goes to the crops and many pesticides are applied there.
Adan Rascon Ramos, beekeeper in Chihuahua for 30 years
As water levels have dropped, the local tourist trade has dried up, along with fishing, leaving producers hoping that conditions will improve in the coming months.
“I’ve been working on the dam for a year now and I’ve seen how the number of people who come to take a walk here has decreased,” said Daniel Rubi, a fisherman who gives boat rides to visitors. “The dam is already very dry, about 20% and it’s still going down,” he added.
