President of Mexico Inaugurates Drinking Water Supply System for Yaqui People

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, inaugurated the Yaqui Aqueduct, a drinking water supply system aimed at solving the serious water shortage in 50 rural communities, populated by 40,000 indigenous Yaqui people, who live in southern Sonora, in northwestern Mexico.

During the inauguration of the aqueduct on Sunday, February 25, President López Obrador stated that the Yaqui Aqueduct is part of the commitments of the Justice Plan for Indigenous Peoples that intend to attend to the historical demands of the Yaqui indigenous people, which include education, health, social development, economic development, drinking water supply, and territorial rights.

“This aqueduct, the pump, the water-purification plants and their branches will be able to supply the indigenous communities over the next 30 years, taking into account the population growth,” the president said. “So this is an important work for the benefit of the Yaqui people, supplemented with the recovery of the land that was stolen from them [by large land-owners and mining corporations].”

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The governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo Montaño, stated that there are hundreds of indigenous families without access to drinking water, despite the decree of the late President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940) that promised to provided water to the Yaqui communities.

Governor Durazo explained that the Yaqui Aqueduct is 166 kilometers long with 75 kilometers of branches to connect the 50 communities that make up the Eight Nations, namely, Loma de Guamúchil, Loma de Bácum, Tórim, Vicam, Pótam, Ráhum, Huirivis, and Belem, where 40,000 people live.

¡Hoy es un día histórico para Sonora y nuestros pueblos originarios! De la mano de nuestro presidente @lopezobrador_, ponemos en operación el Acueducto Yaqui para dotar de agua potable a más de 34 mil personas del territorio yaqui. pic.twitter.com/exmGdXiB77
— Alfonso Durazo (@AlfonsoDurazo) February 25, 2024

The Yaqui Aqueduct will supply water from the basin of the Yaqui River, which also supplies water to four cities of Sonora—Hermosillo, the state capital; Ciudad Obregón; Guaymas; and Empalme, where more than 1.5 million people live. However, until the opening of the Yaqui Aqueduct, the people living in the eight Yaqui towns suffered from shortages.

As the Yaqui Nation has agricultural and coastal lands, the inhabitants of the Yaqui territory had constructed wells, but many of them have dried out, or became contaminated with saltpeter from the sea or heavy metals from pesticides used in agriculture in the Yaqui Valley.

(Telesur English)