Saving the Ayuquila River

Located in Western Mexico and traversing the states of Jalisco and Colima, the Ayuquila River is approximately 3 hours by car from the city of Guadalajara. The river is part of the Ayuquila – Armería basin, which at the lower end is divided into three sub-basins: the Armería, the Ayuquila, and the Tuxcacuesco Rivers. Combined the Ayuquila-Armería rivers are 294 km in length. About 550,000 people live in the basin distributed in 22 municipalities. Within the river basin, there is a fertile valley between the towns of Autlán and El Grullo where the main economic activity is intensive production of sugar cane. A sugar mill began operations in this valley in 1972.

 

About 100 km from its source the river system is damed at Tacotán. A further 15 km downstream there is a second dam at Trigomil and within another 20 km there is the Corcovado diversion dam where most of the water is extracted for use in agricultural irrigation. Downstream from this valley the river borders the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (SMBR) for about 70 km. Here the terrain is not suitable for large-scale agriculture, and communities have historically dedicated to subsistence agriculture and fishing. At the eastern edge of the Reserve, the Ayuquila River joins with the Tuxcacuesco River to form the Armería River for the last 135 km before draining into the Pacific Ocean.

 

In the Ayuquila watershed, the economic benefits from development are not evenly spread. Some upstream communities such as municipalities Autlán and El Grullo have done relatively well from the intensive, export agriculture including sugar cane, watermelon, tomato, and chile. However, the downstream communities at places such as Tuxcacuesco and Tolimán have fared less well and rely on subsistence farming, livestock, and fisheries. At the same time, water pollution from the sugar mill and untreated sewage from the upstream communities have had negative impacts on the quality of life downstream. Pollution can be both a creeping problem and also catastrophic. In both instances, the impacts include loss of aquatic life and also health problems for people and their livestock.

• 1979

  • Dams and Irrigation

    In the 1960s and 1970s, dam construction stimulates agricultural development in the Ayuquila River Valley.
    
    The Las Piedras Dam irrigates 2,700 ha in Jalisco and 12,000 ha in Colima and the latter two dams would combine to irrigate 12,000 ha, with the storage capacity to potentially irrigate a further 6,000 ha.  Additional storage is distributed in the northern part of the watershed in 11 small reservoirs.
    
    According to Pedro Perez, officer in charge of the irrigation district, these dams have 2 basic functions: expand and strengthen irrigation in the Autlán – El Grullo Valley; and control floods.

• 1987

  • Establishment of the Biosphere Reserve

    On 5 March 1987, the President of Mexico, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, signs a federal decree establishing the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve. The reserve comprises a mountainous area of 139,500 ha and encompasses 45 communities. The decree is essentially a zoning regulation, whereby owners maintain the title to their lands, but restrictions are imposed in order to conserve ecological services (e.g. water sources) and biological diversity. The Sierra de Manantlán is the first protected area in Mexico decreed to maintain traditional agricultural systems and a diversity of crop types.

     

    The Sierra de Manantlán mountain range rises from 400 to 2,860 meters above sea level. Two major geographic realms meet each other here, in what is called the Nearctic-Neotropical transition zone. The Sierra de Manantlán thus houses many species from the temperate north that live at the southern tip of their zone, along with many tropical species at the extreme of their northern habitat, resulting in a high degree of biodiversity.

     

    Eight different types of forests are present in the reserve including mesophytic, cloud, dry deciduous and semi-deciduous tropical forests. Around 40 tree species have been commercially exploited for timber. The flora is particularly rich with 30 endemic species, including the discovered ancestral corn species, 'Teosinte' (Zea Diploperennis), which helped lead to the establishment of the reserve. The high degree of diversity is also found in the wide variety of animal species present.

     

    Cattle and agriculture are the main sources of income of the people who live in the Sierra de Manantlán region, many in poor and marginal living conditions. Ecological services derived from the reserve zone are estimated to benefit 691,000 people in what is considered the influence region.

     

    According to UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme, Biosphere Reserves are areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems promoting solutions to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. They are internationally recognized, nominated by national governments and remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Biosphere reserves serve in some ways as 'living laboratories' for testing out and demonstrating integrated management of land, water and biodiversity. Each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfil three basic functions, which are complementary and mutually reinforcing:

     

    Eight different types of forests are present in the reserve including mesophytic, cloud, dry deciduous and semi-deciduous tropical forests. Around 40 tree species have been commercially exploited for timber. The flora is particularly rich with 30 endemic species, including the discovered ancestral corn species, 'Teosinte' (Zea Diploperennis), which helped lead to the establishment of the reserve. The high degree of diversity is also found in the wide variety of animal species present.
    

     

  • Interview with Former Biosphere Reserve Director

• 1992

  • Learning about Waste

    Finding a permanent site for the garbage dump is proving to be a real headache for the El Grullo municipality. Whenever a site is chosen, landowners and their neighbours complain of potential odour and visual impacts on the landscape.
    

    In 1992, the dump, located adjacent to the Ayuquila river is hit by one of the largest floods in history spreading waste from the site all over the valley of El Grullo. Subsequently, the municipal president asks the Institute’s environmental education coordinator, Salvador García, to try to come up with a solution to the problem.
    

    Salvador begins by studying recycling as a way to reduce waste generation and makes his home into an experimental and demonstration site. He documents all of the processes that formed part of his demonstration programmes, including the development of techniques for "home organic farming" based on the composting of recycled organic wastes. The would-be famous El Grullo municipal recycling program had begun.
    

• 1993

  • Film Made about the Water Pollution

    In response to the public outcry, the Manantlán Institute of Ecology and Conservation of Biodiversity’s environmental education programme makes a video that shows the local people telling their own story of how the pollution problem affects their health, livelihoods and quality of life. Dissemination of the video also improves awareness of the pollution problem beyond the boundaries of the valley, and later nationally.

• 1995

  • Sugar Mill Explains New Plan to Reduce Pollution

    The Melchor Ocampo Sugar Mill has great influence in the local ruling elite linked to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI - Partido Revolucionario Institucional), and on the ejido sugar cane producers who are organized through the National Peasant Confederation (CNC - Confederación Nacional Campesina) Mexico’s national union of peasants; and on private land owners organized through the National Confederation of Small Land Owners (CNPP - Confederación Nacional de la Pequeña Propiedad), as both of these groups are closely related to the PRI.

     

    Many of the sugar cane growers whom originally sided with the position of the river defence committees withdrew their support over concerns that they would lose their jobs. The growers believe that because the water treatment alternatives are too expensive it will cause the Sugar Mill to close.

     

    The Sugar Mill starts to use the local press to indirectly advocate their position, with articles stating the importance of the mill to the local economy. They argue that the treatment of wastewater will take 3 to 5 years to implement due to high cost of water treatment infrastructure. The Mill management also point out that the local municipalities are also polluting the river.
    
     

• 1998

  • Disaster Strikes

    On 20 March 1998, a molasses storage tank ruptures at the Melchor Ocampo Sugar Mill and spills molasses into a canal that flows into the Ayuquila River. During some 10 hours approximately 100 tons of molasses are released.

     

    The molasses causes eutrophication in the river, where ultimately the increase in bacterial populations depletes all the oxygen in the water. Most fish, for a stretch of about 30 kms, die of suffocation or emigrate to unaffected streams. Dead fish are reported in the adjacent state of Colima some 100 km downstream.

  • Solid Waste Recycling Programme

    Following the success of the El Grullo municipal recycling programme, the Autlán municipal government requests support from the University of Guadalajara to create a similar programme.

     

    The University agrees and initiates the municipal environmental education campaign to launch the recycling programme. Unlike the case of El Grullo, which is a smaller municipality, the Autlán municipality takes full responsibility for implementing and operating the recycling programme.

• 1999

  • Cuban Specialists Give Advice

    Although the Manantlán Institute of Ecology and Conservation of Biodiversity and the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve had a good understanding of the causes and ecological effects of the Sugar Mill's polluting activities, no one had evaluated the internal workings of the Sugar Mill or control pollution techniques. Private consultants were providing exorbitant estimates for implementing wastewater treatment systems.

     

    As part of the Mexico-Cuba bilateral collaboration programme the Reserve became a sister reserve to the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve in Cuba. As the Director of the Reserve, Sergio Graf requests advice from the Ministry of Environment Natural Resources and fisheries (SEMARNAP – Secretaría de Medio Ambiente Recursos Naturales y Pesca) on how best to conduct an analysis to determine the options for wastewater management at the Mill. As a result, two specialists from Cuba's sugar administration visit El Grullo and inspect the Melchor Ocampo Sugar Mill.

• 2000

  • Illegal Trash

    The lack of suitable garbage disposal sites in the locality results in the illegal dumping of waste. The local municipalities are struggling to tackle this problem with support from the national government.

     

    However, even when signs are put up prohibiting dumping, trash still continues to pile up in the illegal dumps along the roadside and close to the river. For the local government officials this is a two-edged sword since they can neither appropriate land to set up waste dumps nor curb illegal dumping.