Santa Lucía could cause water shortage

Building the new airport in Santa Lucía , in the municipality of Tecámac , will cause a water shortage in nearby communities, who have been facing water shortage issues for years, warned the municipal officials and auxiliary authorities.

Armando Hernández

, the L os Reyes Acozac representative , warned that the airport will affect farmers in the region, who still sow corn, radish, onion, lettuce, and other vegetables, as they won't have water for their crops.

The inhabitants of the indigenous communities of this municipality in the State of Mexico consider that besides the water shortage, the groundwater systems will be affected and the farming activity will decrease because the land usage will be modified to use it to build hotel infrastructure and services, which will be required by the airport .

“The area will be severely affected. More than benefits, it is going to affect us, mainly the destruction of the ecosystem , the overexploitation of groundwater reserves and the provision of water to an airport of that size. It is going to be large and to supplying water, logically, will take away the water from the communities,” said the representative.

In the San Lucas Xolox community, there are families who depend on agriculture, and a project of this size will drastically change their historic environment, said Hernández.

The neighbors who live in communities close to the Santa Lucía air base don't know what the airport plan consists of and the implications of its operation.

“We still don't know anything about the project, in my opinion, we haven't been taken into account but I don't see any benefit on a project like this for the farmers and indigenous communities, as we live by our practices and traditions. We survive from what we sow. In the end, as a community, we won't be able to do anything because the one in charge will be the President, Andrés Manuel, but what we're saying is that we don't agree with the construction of the Santa Lucía airport, the air base is Xolox land, and it would affect us,” said Miguel Meléndez, the representative of San Lucas Xolox.

The inhabitants of Tecámac are worried mountains and other protected areas will be exploited without control, to extract construction materials to build the airport, as it happened in Texcoco , where they devastated natural resources.

“We have protected areas here, and if the airport is built here, the mountains will be devastated. The scarce farming land we have left is going to be used to build homes and that would affect us, the insecurity would rise,” said Meléndez.

Currently, they have to drill over 150 meters to extract clean water in this community, when years ago, they only needed to drill for 30 or 50 meters.

Environmental impact of New Mexico City Airport

gm