In an extensive report published today, the newspaper Excelsior warns of the consequences that the shrinking of the dam is having an effect on the supply of the precious liquid to several municipalities of the capital and large populated areas of the State of Mexico.

The dam had a depth of up to 18 meters and a water mirror that covered a perimeter of 60.9 kilometers.

Today the panorama is devastating; large islands or mounds of sediment emerge in the middle of the reservoir, which has barely 30 percent storage, an alarming figure.

The lack of water is causing the Villa Victoria dam to become shorter and narrower, one of the main sources of supply to the Cutzamala system, which provides 23 percent of the resource required by the Valley of Mexico.

The prolonged drought linked to climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, cut the flows in the Villa Victoria-San José del Rincón sub-basin, of almost 47,000 hectares, made up of part of the municipalities of Villa Victoria, San Felipe del Progreso and many others, which are fed by springs and water sources of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

The deterioration of the Villa Victoria dam, located within a protected natural area with the category of State Park, is the result of deforestation, illegal logging, expansion of the agricultural frontier, extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides, loss of ejido communities, and population growth, which lacks adequate sewage and wastewater treatment services.

Federico Llamas, general director and founder of the Environmental University, pointed out that in Villa Victoria and Valle de Bravo, it is clear that the future has caught up with us and we have to face it in the best possible way with public policies, management and water reuse.

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