Querétaro’s main dams begin to recover storage

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The increase in water accumulation coincides with the increase in rainfall that the state has experienced since June.

Querétaro, Qro. The rains of the last month have an impact on the gradual recovery of water bodies. The state’s 26 dams have a storage of almost 43%, accumulating 87.97 million cubic meters of water, compared to the total capacity of 206.48 million cubic meters, according to monitoring by the National Water Commission (Conagua) as of August 2.

This capture is preceded by very low filling levels; as of April 5, 2023, the 26 reservoirs reported 13% storage, 30 percentage points lower than now.

Currently, of the total number of dams, 10 (38.5%) are already at 100% of their capacity. These are the El Carmen, Pirules, El Zapote, San Miguel Tlaxcaltepec, Santiago Mexquititlán, Jesús María, El Tecolote and El Cajón, Jalpan and Puerta de Alegrías dams, according to reports from Conagua, provided by the Secretariat of Agricultural Development (Sedea).

Six more dams have a storage level of over 50%, but still not reaching full capacity, and the remaining 10 dams are below 50% of total capacity.

The 12 dams that make up the Querétaro region have 55% storage, while 11 that make up the San Juan del Río region are at 35%, the two dams in the Cadereyta region are at 52% and the Jalpan region is at 100 percent.

However, among the 26 dams, the capacity of two concentrates 55.16% of the total volume: the Constitución de 1917 dam, which contributes 32% of the total capacity of the state’s dams, and the San Ildefonso dam, which contributes 23.16 percent.

Improvement

The seven main dams in Querétaro have improved water storage in the last month, as their filling level went from 4.4 to 34.1% between June and July, according to records from the National Water Information System (Sina) of Conagua.

The Jalpan de Serra water body recovered more volume, going from 27 to 99% full; among the seven reservoirs, it is the only one that, at the end of July, reached practically its full capacity.

Next, the Constitución de 1917 dam, in San Juan del Río, climbed in one month from 3 to 35% full; The San Ildefonso dam in Amealco de Bonfil increased from 1 to 31% of its capacity.

The El Centenario dam in Tequisquiapan increased from 8 to 35%; the El Batán dam in Corregidora increased from 7 to 20%; the La Venta dam in Pedro Escobedo increased from 11 to 16% of its capacity.

In contrast to the recovery of six of the seven main dams, the La Llave dam in San Juan de Río remained unchanged, because it is still empty.

La Llave is one of the two dams that are empty among the 210 main ones in the country; the other case is the Abelardo Rodríguez Luján dam, which is located in Sonora.

Querétaro’s priority reservoirs also reflect a recovery compared to the previous year, when the seven dams reported an average filling of just 2.5% as of July 2023. At that time, five of the main ones were empty and only two had water: Jalpan, which was at 36% and El Batán, which was at 15 percent.

The increase in water accumulation coincides with the increase in rainfall that the state has experienced since June, when it accumulated 132.5 millimeters, a level of precipitation that had not been recorded since 2021, according to Conagua records.

Of the 210 dams, at the end of July, 43.8% (92) were less than 50% full, while 56.2% (118) were equal to or greater than 50 percent.

In one month, the percentage of dams with more than 50% of their capacity increased, since at the end of June only 28.1% of the 210 were in that condition, a figure that increased to 56.2% at the end of July.

The main dams in the country closed July with a capacity level of 44.6 percent.

Source: eleconomista