Leticia Rodrguez, the owner of a restaurant, celebrated the completion late last year of a new lakeside boulevard in this town in northern Mexico that she believed would bring more customers to her establishment. But now that La Boca Reservoir is almost empty, visitors no longer come to boat, water ski, or simply eat.
In April, Rodriguez was forced to fire the majority of her crew; she now manages the restaurant with her husband and kids.
In certain situations, a severe drought in northern Mexico is endangering people's livelihoods in addition to making daily life difficult for locals.
The only chance, according to Rodriguez, is for it to rain. We need the reservoir to recover since it is what is harming us the most, so we hope even the hurricane's tail will arrive.
The National Water Commission of Mexico proclaimed a drought emergency last week, enabling the administration to take action to ensure the availability of water. Nearly all of the north and central regions were classified as being in drought conditions by the country's Drought Monitor.
The La Nia weather phenomenon, whose effects have gotten worse with climate change, is connected to the drought. La Nia is a cyclical and natural cooling of the equatorial Pacific that affects global weather patterns. This has resulted in more drought in some regions, such as northern Mexico and the southwest of the United States.
The industrial city of Monterrey, located approximately 22 miles (35 kilometers) to the north, is experiencing a number of issues in addition to the drying up of Santiago's reservoir.
According to Juan Ignacio Barragán, director general of the Monterrey Water and Sewer Services, El Cuchillo, a third reservoir that feeds the city, is 46 percent full while Cerro Prieto, another reservoir, is less than half of 1 percent of its capacity, or practically empty.
Under normal circumstances, the reservoirs provide 60% of the city's water, with the other 40% coming from deep and shallow wells and underground water capturing tunnels.
According to Barragán, the city intends to deploy more tankers to provide water to more remote districts over the course of the following two weeks.
The industrial and agricultural sectors of the state of Nuevo Leon agreed to give up a sizable portion of their water rights to the state in order to alleviate the deteriorating situation. However, analysts agree that the coming weeks will be crucial. Water restrictions in the city will need to be increased if rains arrive later than usual in August.
While Monterrey's position is concerning—it contributes for 12 percent of Mexico's GDP—Aldo Iván Ramrez, a professor in the engineering program at Monterrey Technological University, claimed that "it is far worse in other parts of the country."
Both in 1998 and 2013, the city experienced severe drought, but this time it's worse because only El Cuchillo has water left, he said.
Many people in the city were still unprepared for the water issue this year. Water storage tanks were uncommon in residences. Nowadays, many people have implemented water-saving practices.
Ramrez remarked, "I think this situation has made the people ponder a lot. The worst thing that could happen to us, in my opinion, is for a cyclone to arrive and solve this problem while everyone forgets about it.
Before it dried up, hundreds of visitors would visit the reservoir every weekend, according to Rodrguez, the restaurant owner in Santiago.
She pointed to an abandoned restaurant that was well into the lake on a recent day, over the muddy lake bottom, where diners once arrived by boat. When the water started to drain and the tourists stopped visiting, it closed early this year.
The 54-year-old resident of Santiago claimed, "For me, this is worse than the pandemic, because at least in the pandemic there were people."
Ducks now stroll around the end of the dock where visitors once boarded boats for lake rides in the shallow water.
Juan Pérez, 65, who was seated on one of the dock's former floating seats, claimed that when the boat tour firm went out of business earlier this year, he and 60 other employees lost their jobs as well. He now makes a living by cleaning up after the town.
Remembering the joyous mood that once ruled here on the weekends, Pérez stated, "It's horrible to see it like this... it's worse than a graveyard."
The authorities are making every effort to remove as much of the remaining water from La Boca as they can.
According to engineer Ral Ramrez, whose business installed the pump, they installed a floating pump that they expect will extract about 105 gallons (400 liters) of water every second that will be piped to Monterrey. They intended to leave just enough water to sustain the aquatic life that was still present.
Ramirez stated, "We were warned that this may happen since last year, but sadly as a society we didn't listen, we didn't want to understand," as he stood on a dry lake bed that had previously been covered with water.
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