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The geography of droughts in Mexico

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Jun 172013
 

Today (June 17) is the UN’s “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.”

How does Mexico stand right now in relation to drought? Drought currently affects about 40% of the country (see map). Some parts of northern Mexico have been experiencing a severe drought for almost three years. The worst affected states are Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, together with parts of Querétaro, Aguascalientes, Sinaloa and Sonora.

Areas suffering from short-term and long-term drought, April 2013. Click map to enlarge.

Areas suffering from short-term and long-term drought, April 2013. Click map to enlarge.

Last year’s rains did reduce the area suffering from drought from 55.9% of Mexico to 38.6%, but that figure has risen to well over 40% this year.

In 2012, and earlier this year, many major cities, including Mexico City and Guadalajara, had to enforce water rationing for several months, supplying water to individual households only on certain days each week.

As this year’s rainy season begins in central Mexico, dozens of reservoirs are at critically low levels. Reservoirs in Coahuila average only 10% of their capacity, only slightly better than those in San Luis Potosí (12%). Even the populous state of Jalisco faces problems; its reservoirs are at 27% of capacity.

Things are unlikely to improve any time soon since the current long range forecast for this rainy season is for 30% less precipitation than the long term average.

The drought has already caused significant losses to farmers. Livestock owners in northern Mexico have culled herds and are having to buy in supplies of water to top up their private wells. Rainfall so far in 2013 has been well below long-term averages in central and northern Mexico, which may limit the region’s productivity of rain-fed agriculture (mostly wheat, corn, sorghum and other fodder crops).

Authorities at the three levels of government (federal, state and municipal) in many regions are calling for urgent concerted action to help farmers as well as to ensure supplies of drinking water to towns, cities and rural communities.

In Tamaulipas, at least 60 rural communities are confronting a critical water shortage. Farming representatives argue that while the National Water Commission (Conagua) has guaranteed water supply for urban areas, many rural areas remain vulnerable, and lack both potable water and food support on account of harvest failures due to lack of rain. In Tamaulipas alone, drought has affected 22,000 hectares and killed 800 head of livestock in the past year.

In Nuevo León, citrus farmers fear that their harvest, which begins in October will be 40-50% lower than usual. The state government is supporting a 35-million-dollar support program for farmers which includes supplying water by truck, rehabilitating deep wells and offering subsidies for water that farmers buy direct from private suppliers. The spring harvest in Nuevo León was lost completely, and a “severe drought emergency” has been declared in at least 14 municiapliites (Allende, Cadereyta, Dr. Arroyo, General Terán, Higueras, Juárez, Lampazos, Rayones, Sabinas Hidalgo, Santa Catarina, Villaldama, Hidalgo, García and Mina) allowing them access to federal aid.

Besides loss of livestock and crops, the prolonged drought in Mexico is having many other effects, which include:

Migration – In Durango state, more than 1500 Mennonites have left their homes due to the drought, according to Mennonite leader Enrique Peter Klassen, with some of the migrants headed for neighboring state of Chihuahua and others emigrating to Canada.

Wildfires – The first four months of 2013 was the third worst season for forest fires (more than 7000 were reported) in recent history, after 1996 and 2011. According to the National Forestry Commission (Conafor), wildfires ravaged 170,000 hectares, mostly grassland and wooded pastureland, in the first four months of this year. The states which suffered most were Oaxaca (21,000 ha), Baja California Sur (16,000), Guerrero (13,857) and Jalisco (13,697).

Lake Chapala – In the past two years, the level of Mexico’s largest natural lake, Lake Chapala, has once again fallen to crisis levels. (The lake has a long history of fluctuations in level, discussed in detail in our Geo-Mexico, the geography and dynamics of modern Mexico). The lake currently holds 2.84 million cubic meters of water, about 36% of its capacity. Its level has fallen 1.43 meters since last year’s rainy season, the lake’s most dramatic decline for 20 years. The rainy seasons in 2011 and 2012 raised the lake level by only 24 cm and 50 cm respectively, so unless this year’s rains are exceptionally heavy, the lake will continue to drop.

Previous posts related to drought:

Early maps of Mexico

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Jun 152013
 

If you find maps, especially old maps, as fascinating as I do, you’ll enjoy reading the chapter on “Mesoamerican Cartography” (link is to pdf file) in the University of Chicago’s History of Cartography. In this wide-ranging chapter, author Dr. Barbara Mundy explores many aspects of Mesoamerican Cartography, from the different styles and materials used to the subtle changes that followed the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.

The chapter has numerous illustrations of early maps, as well as an interesting diagram showing some of the regional and ethnic differences in the pictographs used to depict common geographic features such as hills, fields, sources of water and stones.

This image shows a page from the Codex Mendoza depicting the Aztec capital Tenochititlan.

Codex Mendoza

Codex Mendoza

The map, thought to have been painted in 1541, shows the founding of Tenochtitlan (by the Mexica) in 1325 (this date is shown by a symbol for a house crowned by two dots in the upper left hand corner). The glyphs around the edge of the map show the passage of time. The central illustration shows Tenochtitlan, dominated by a blue X, marking the four canals that divided the city both geographically and socially. Around the four quadrants sit the ten original founders of the city. Their leader, Tenoch, is seen immediately left of center. The hieroglyphic place-name for Tenochititlan, in the middle of the page, at the juncture of the canals, is a stone with a cactus growing out of it. (Description based on caption in History of Cartography).

On top of the cactus sits a bird of prey (popularly thought to be an eagle, but more probably a Crested Cara-Cara), the sign that the Mexica believed would tell them where to found their new city.

“Mesoamerican Cartography” is chapter 5 of Volume Two, Book Three (“Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies”) of the History of Cartography. The first volume of the History of Cartography was published in 1987 and the three books that constitute Volume Two appeared over the following eleven years. The University of Chicago Press website has links to a series of pdf files for the first three volumes of the History of Cartography (each chapter is a separate pdf).

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Mexico and the Environmental Sustainability Index

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Jun 132013
 

Environmental sustainability is a highly politicized term which almost all nations now eagerly claim as one of their goals. How true are these claims? The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) combines five major components (see diagram) which include 76 separate measurements in all. It assesses how close countries are to environmental sustainability. The ESI includes the ecological footprint but also looks at levels of pollution, susceptibility to environmental disruptions, the effectiveness of environmental policies and each country’s contribution to global stewardship.

Comparison of ESI components for Mexico, USA and Canada. (Geo-Mexico. Figure 30.5) All rights reserved.

Comparison of ESI components for Mexico, USA and Canada. (Geo-Mexico. Figure 30.5) All rights reserved.

The countries with the highest ESI scores are predominantly resource-rich nations with low population densities, such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. Some small wealthy states such as Switzerland also make the top ten. In general, densely populated countries such as India and Bangladesh do not score as well.

Mexico’s low ranking in the pilot 2000 ESI table led to Mexico’s Environment Secretariat (SEMARNAT) exploring ways to ensure that international organizations such as the World Bank and World Resources Institute had faster access to updated data from Mexico. Government policy was modified to embrace the use of quantitative environmental data relating to sustainability.

In terms of global stewardship, Mexico and the USA are closer to the target for environmental sustainability than Canada (see diagram). For reducing environmental stresses, Mexico and Canada are ahead of the USA. However, for the other three components, Mexico lags well behind both its North American partners.

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How was the Primavera Forest caldera in Jalisco formed?

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Jun 102013
 

In a previous post, we described the considerable geotourism potential of the Primavera Forest near Guadalajara:

In this post, we take a closer look at how this unusual area was formed.

Stages 1 and 2 (see diagram):

140,000 BP. The magma chamber beneath the surface began to fill with magma (molten rock underground) and grow in size.

By about 120,000 BP, several lava flows and domes had formed, made primarily of rhyolite, a silica-rich (“acid”) igneous rock. After each eruption, the magma level underground would subside for a period of time before pressure built up again towards the next eruption.

Formation of a caldera

Fig. 4 of Bullard (1962) “Volcanoes in history, in theory, in eruption”. Based on van Bemmelen (1929) and Williams (1941)

Stages 3 and 4

So much pressure had built up by about 95,000 BP that there was a huge explosion, sending 20 cubic kilometers (4.8 cubic miles) of rock and ashes high into the sky. The explosion covered 700 square kilometers (270 square miles) with volcanic materials, known today as the Tala tuff (tuff is the geological term for consolidated ash). This massive explosion caused the upper part of the magma chamber to collapse, leaving a caldera that was 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) wide. The Tala tuff includes large quantities of pumice, a light and porous volcanic rock formed when a gas-rich froth of glassy lava solidifies rapidly.

This caldera filled with water, creating a lake.

Stage 5

This stage began shortly afterwards when a series of ring domes were erupted around the edge of the caldera as the magma deep below the surface started to push upwards again, eventually forming small islands in the lake. These eruptions formed more pumice, blocks of which would break off and start to float across the lake as they gradually sank to the lake floor.

A further series of eruptions in about 75,000 BP led to a second series of ring domes. A combination of tectonic uplift and sedimentation had filled the lake in by about this time.

More volcanic domes have been created at approximately 30,000 year intervals since, in about 60,000 BP and about 30,000 BP; these domes were almost all on the southern and eastern margins of the caldera, and include the lava domes of El Colli and El Tajo on the outskirts of Guadalajara.

Many geologists appear quietly confident that lava and ash eruptions in La Primavera are a thing of the past. They consider that the Primavera Forest’s fumaroles, hot river and hot waterfall represent the last vestiges of vulcanism and are no cause for alarm. On the other hand, others, including Gail Mahood who has studied this area far more than most, warn that hazard monitoring is justified in the case of La Primavera given its proximity to a major city and bearing in mind that any future eruption would be likely to occur on the southern and/or eastern side of the caldera.

The La Primavera Forest is only one of several calderas in Mexico’s Volcanic Axis.

If you prefer a short 9 minute video animation of how the area was formed, try this excellent YouTube video: “The Exciting Geology of Bosque La Primavera“, produced by geologist Barbara Dye during her stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mexico.

References:

  • Mahood G. A. 1980. Geological evolution of a Pleistocene rhyolitic center – Sierra La Primavera, Jalisco, Mexico. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 8: 199-230.
  • Mahood, G.A. 1981. A summary of the geology and petrology of the Sierra La Primavera, Jalisco, Mexico. Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 86.
  • Dye, Barbara. 2013. “La Apasionante Geología del Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna La Primavera”.

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Deported migrants set up home in Tijuana canal

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Jun 082013
 

This 30 minute video (narrated in Spanish with English subtitles) looks at the vexed situation of Mexican workers that have been deported from the USA back into Mexico. About 200 migrants are deported daily. Almost all are male,. Many of them have lived for several years in the USA prior to deportation, and some have wives and families still living north of the border.

About 45% of all migrants from Mexico to the USA crossed the border between Tijuana and California. Since 1994 (Operation Gatekeeper) crossing the border has been made progressively more difficult. The border is now heavily protected with border guards given access to technology such as night-vision telescopes and a network of seismic monitors (to detect the minor ground movements that signal people walking or running through the desert). As the US economy ran into problems a few years ago, the flow of migrants north slowed down, even as authorities in the US launched more raids against undocumented workers, leading to an increase in the number of workers deported.

In the video, a range of stakeholders are given the chance to explain how they see the problems faced by deportees. A social anthropologist provides some background and academic insights; activists explain their position and how they seek to help deportees; several individual deportees share their experiences and invite us into their “homes”, precarious one-room shacks, some built partially underground, hobbit-like, in “El Bordo”, a section of the canalized channel of the Tijuana River that runs alongside the international border.

The garbage-strewn El Bordo has sometimes housed as many as 4,000 deportees. Mexican authorities are anxious to clean the area up and periodically bulldoze any shacks they find.

These personal stories of workers from interior states such as Puebla are harrowing. Many still seek “the dream” and openly admit they do not want to return to their families as a “defeated person”.

While parts of this video might have benefited from tighter editing, the accounts are thought-provoking and the video is an outstanding resource to use with classes considering the longer-term impacts of international migration.

There seems little doubt that a majority of the “residents” of El Bordo has a serious drug problem, and the video includes interviews about this issue with municipal police, deportees and aid workers, who discuss the problems and suggest some possible solutions, but ultimately, the city and state authorities have some tough decisions to make if they are to resolve this serious, and growing, humanitarian problem.

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Mexico the fourth most obese country in the world

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Jun 062013
 

Earlier this week, the headline “Ocupa México primer lugar mundial en obesidad; supera a EU” (Mexico in first place for obesity; more obese than the USA)  grabbed my attention. The headline appeared in the Mexican magazine Proceso, normally a stickler for getting its facts straight.

Last time we checked (October 2012)–Obesity in Mexico compared to other countries: bigger is not better–Mexico was in fourth place in the obesity league table, behind Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA. [Note that our ranking excludes several very small countries with higher rates of obesity, such as Nauru (71.1%), Cook Islands (64.1%), Marshall Islands (46.5%), Kiribati (45.8%) and St.Kitts-Nevis (40.9%).]

The Proceso article was based on the latest United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report entitled “The State of Food and Agriculture: Food Systems for a Better Nutrition”

On reading the report, it turned out that Proceso had made an unaccustomed error. Mexico is not the most obese country in the world, but remains in fourth place, behind Saudi Arabia, Egypt and South Africa. Mexico has overtaken the USA but has itself been overtaken by South Africa. Normally, any time Mexico beats the USA, whatever the sport or event, it calls for a good old-fashioned celebration with some shots of tequila, but on this occasion, it raises some serious concerns about Mexico’s nutrition and health care strategies.

Obesity in adults is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30, where BMI is defined as a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of his height in meters (kg/m2). Mexico’s rate (for adults), as quoted in the FAO report, had risen to 32.8% of the adult population, almost one in three. By way of comparison, the equivalent figures were 35.2% for Saudi Arabia and 34.6% for Egypt, while the USA rate fell slightly to 31.8%.

The FAO estimates that 12.5% of the world’s population (868 million people) are undernourished in terms of energy intake, yet these figures represent only a fraction of the global burden of malnutrition (over- and under-nutrition). An estimated 26% of the world’s children (under 5 years of age) are stunted, 2 billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies and 1.4 billion people are overweight, of whom 500 million are obese.

Most countries are burdened by multiple types of malnutrition, which may coexist within the same country, household or individual.

The social cost of malnutrition, measured by the “disability-adjusted life years” (DALY) lost to child and maternal malnutrition and to overweight and obesity, is very high. Beyond the social cost, the cost to the global economy caused by malnutrition, as a result of lost productivity and direct health care costs, could account for as much as 5% of global gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to US$3.5 trillion per year or US$500 per person.

The FAO stresses that, “The way we grow, raise, process, transport and distribute food influences what we eat,” and adds that improved food systems can make food more affordable, diverse and nutritious.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including using appropriate agricultural policies, investment and research to increase productivity; cutting food losses and waste, which currently amount to one third of the food produced for human consumption every year; and helping consumers make good dietary choices for better nutrition through education, information and other actions.

Among other recommendations is to make food systems more responsive to the needs of mothers and young children. FAO notes that malnutrition during the critical ‘first 1,000 days’ from conception can cause lasting damage to women’s health and life-long physical and cognitive impairment in children.

The agency cites several projects that have proved successful in raising nutrition levels such as the promotion of home gardens in West Africa; encouragement of mixed vegetable and animal farming systems together with income-generating activities in some Asian countries; and public-private partnerships to enrich products like yoghurt or cooking oil with nutrients.

Other figures for Mexico from the report:

  • 29.4% of children under five have anemia
  • 26.8% of children under five suffer from vitamin A deficiency
  •  8.5% of children under five have an iodine deficiency

Note: This post includes some paragraphs from the related FAO press release. Click here for the full text of the report (pdf file).

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Five Mexican beaches gain international Blue Flag certification

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Jun 032013
 

For the first time ever, five Mexican beaches have been awarded Blue Flag certification. The Blue Flag system is a voluntary, international eco-label program run by the non-government, non-profit organization the Foundation for Environmental Education that recognizes beaches where water quality is excellent, where information and environmental education is readily available, and which are well managed, with high standards of safety and services. The announcement was made in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Blue Flag certification was given to 3100 beaches and 625 marinas worldwide.

Blue flag beaches in Mexico 2013

Mexico’s five Blue Flag beaches (see map) are:

  • Chahué, Santa María de Huatulco, Oaxaca
  • Chileno, in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur
  • Delfines, in Cancún, Quintana Roo
  • El Palmar, in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero
  • Nuevo Vallarta Norte, on Banderas Bay in Nayarit

What does the Blue Flag system take into account?

The Blue Flag beach criteria are grouped into four main categories:

1. Environmental Education and Information

The beach must host at least 5 environmental education activities and display information about:

  • coastal zone ecosystems and natural, sensitive areas in the coastal zone
  • bathing water quality
  • the Blue Flag system
  • the code of conduct for the beach area

2. Water Quality

  • Water quality must be “excellent” in line with international standards
  • The beach must not receive any industrial or sewage-related discharges
  • Any nearby coral reefs must be monitored to ensure they remain healthy
  • Algae, seaweed, etc., should be left on the beach unless it adversely affects beach quality

3. Environmental Management

  • A beach management committee must conduct regular environmental audits
  • The beach must comply with coastal zone planning and environmental legislation
  • The beach must be clean, with sufficient waste disposal and recycling bins
  • There must be adequate and clean sanitary facilities
  • Regulations must prevent unauthorized camping, driving and dumping
  • Regulations concerning beach use by domestic animals must be enforced
  • Sustainable means of transportation must be promoted in the beach area

4. Safety and services

The beach must have:

  • first aid equipment and an adequate number of lifeguards and/or lifesaving equipment
  • a system to manage beach use and prevent conflicts and accidents
  • emergency plans to cover any unexpected pollution event
  • safe access to the beach and regular safety patrols
  • a supply of potable drinking water
  • access and toilets for persons with disabilities
  • a map showing the location of all facilities

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Mexico’s geomorphosites: the Primavera Forest, Guadalajara, Jalisco

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Jun 012013
 

The Primavera Forest (aka Bosque de la Primavera, Sierra de la Primavera) is a volcanic region located immediately west of Mexico’s second-largest city, Guadalajara. The Primavera Forest occupies an ancient volcanic caldera, where the last eruptions are thought to have been about 30,000 years ago. The Primavera is a wilderness area of pine and oak woodland, with hot-water rivers, nature-trails and thermal spas. The park, which is about 30 km (19 mi) across (see map), serves as the lungs of Guadalajara and is popular, especially on weekends, for activities such as picnics, birdwatching, hiking, climbing, mountain biking and motocross.

The Primavera Forest. Credit: Semarnat, 2003

Basic map of the Primavera Forest. The distance between Tala and Guadalajara is about 35 km (22 miles). Credit: Semarnat, 2003

The main geographic and geological attractions of the Primavera Forest include:

Scenery, views, flora and fauna

The average elevation of the Primavera Forest is about 2200 m above sea level, rising to 2270 m (7447 ft) towards the eastern edge of the forest which overlooks the city of Guadalajara. The three main summits are El Pedernal, San Miguel and Las Planillas. There is easy access to the 30,000 ha of protected natural area from various points, including the town of Tala and from Highway 15 (the main Guadalajara-Tepic highway) which skirts the northern edge of the Primavera. Agriculture and settlement have made incursions into the edges of the park, with land cleared for subdivisions or for fields of sugarcane and agave (for tequila). A major wildfire raged through parts of the forest in 2012.

The park is home to about 1000 different plant species as well as 137 different birds and at least 106 terrestrial animals, including deer, puma, opossums (tlacuaches), armadillos and rabbits.

Hot springs

Thermal springs are common throughout the Volcanic Axis of Mexico, and the hot river and many hot springs in the Primavera Forest are a legacy of its volcanic history. Río Caliente, the main developed spa in the Primavera Forest, famous for several decades as one of the country’s top vegetarian and health spas, closed in 2011, following some years of uncertainty regarding its land tenure status and increasing security concerns because of its relatively remote location.

The hot springs in the park have been subject to numerous exploratory studies by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) which considers the park a potential source of geothermal power. The CFE drilled a dozen wells in the 1980s, finding that six of them offered sufficient flow for power production. The CFE believes the park could support at least three 25 megawatt geothermal plants. Drilling was suspended between 1989 and 1994 when the Jalisco state government ordered the CFE to carry out environmental restoration to areas damaged by drilling activities, and the plants have not yet been approved.

Pumice deposits

As veteran explorer-author John Pint points out in “A geopark in my back yard?”, the Primavera Forest is well known to geologists for its giant blocks of pumice, up to several meters across, which are among the largest found anywhere in the world. One of the best locations for seeing these is in the 50-meter-high walls of the Río Seco arroyo on the northern edge of the park, on the outskirts of the small community of Pinar de la Venta. The cliff face has a thick band of pumice overlying numerous thin layers of lake sediments. The pumice blocks are highly vesicular (full of holes) and therefore surprisingly light for their size.

Obsidian deposits

The Primavera Forest is also well known to geologists (and archaeologists) because it has significant amounts of obsidian, a hard, glassy, usually black rock. Obsidian is easy to find (often in big chunks) in several parts of the park. The obsidian formed when blocks of hot lava, still molten, rained into the cold waters of a lake, cooling instantaneously. When fractured, pieces of obsidian acquire very, very sharp edges. Even today, some surgeons still prefer obsidian scalpel blades, recognizing that they are far sharper than those made from even the best steel.

Obsidian was in great demand in precolonial times for use as mirrors, arrowheads and knives, as well as jewelry:

“Among the people to prize obsidian were the residents of Iztépete (often spelt Ixtépete), “hill of obsidian or knife blades”, located just outside the eastern edge of La Primavera. This small, largely forgotten, and poorly-signed archaeological site in a southern suburb of Guadalajara is within a stone’s throw of the city’s periférico (ring-road).”

“Large, angular chunks of obsidian litter the slopes of Cerro Colli, the hill rising behind the 6-meter-high pyramid, which conceals at least five earlier pyramids, each superimposed over the one before. Ceramics found here suggest that occupation stretches back at least to the fifth century, but little is known about the people who built this site.”  [Quotes are from the recently published 4th edition of the author’s “Western Mexico, A Traveler’s Treasury”]

Obsidian is found throughout this region, and while usually black in color, it can also be found in a range of hues, including red and even rainbow patterns. Not far from the western edge of Primavera, at the foot of a steep-sided knoll called El Picacho is El Pedernal, reputed to be the largest obsidian deposit in the world, covering 4 square kilometers, from which an astonishing 40,000 cubic meters of rock have been extracted over the centuries. Sophisticated chemical techniques have shown that El Pedernal obsidian was widely used in Mesoamerica, finding its way as far north as California and as far south as Oaxaca!

The pre-Columbian obsidian jewelry from this region, consisting of very thin wafers of rock, is unique to this area, and clearly the work of highly skilled specialist craftsmen. One particularly fine example (now in the museum in Tala) is a necklace fashioned out of wafer-thin obsidian carvings of human figures, each pierced by a tiny hole. In the absence of metal tools, the patience and dexterity required to have made these is truly amazing.

The art of obsidian carving has not been lost. Skilled artisans in Navajas, another nearby village, continue to this day to chip and shape chunks of obsidian into spheres, chess boards and beautiful works of art, often representing animals.

In future posts we will consider the formation of the La Primavera Forest in more detail, and also look at the extent to which the pressures resulting from its proximity to the city of Guadalajara threaten the park’s long-term health.

Want to read more?

John Pint is one of those spearheading the proposal of seeking UNESCO designation for La Primavera as a GeoPark.

U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer and geologist Barbara Dye has written a beautifully-illustrated  72-page guide (in Spanish) to the geology of the Primavera Forest: “La Apasionante Geología del Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna La Primavera”.

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How does Mexico score on the Social Progress Index?

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May 302013
 

The Social Progress Index measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. It is a compound index, based on  52 indicators in the areas of Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity that show relative performance in order to elevate the quality of discussion on national priorities and to guide social investment decisions.

Social progress is the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential.

The model used to develop the index is based on asking three key questions that help define social progress:

  1. Does a country provide for its people’s most essential needs? (Basic Human Needs)
  2. Are the building blocks in place for individuals and communities to enhance and sustain wellbeing? (Foundations of Wellbeing)
  3. Is there opportunity for all individuals to reach their full potential? (Opportunity)

In this inaugural Social Progress Index, each of these dimensions is disaggregated into four components, each measured by between two and six specific indicators. Each indicator has been tested for internal validity and geographic availability:

Criteria used to compile Social Progress Index

Criteria used to compile Social Progress Index. Click image to enlarge.

For example the Personal Rights component of Opportunity is comprised of 5 separate variables:

  • Political Rights (Freedom House)
  • Freedom of Speech (CIRI Human Rights Data Project)
  • Freedom of Assembly/Association(CIRI Human Rights Data Project)
  • Private Property Rights (Heritage Foundation)
  • Women`s Property Rights (Economist Intelligence Unit)

How does Mexico score on the Social Progress Index?

Of issues covered by the Basic Human Needs Dimension, Mexico does best in areas including Nutrition and Basic Medical Care and has the greatest opportunity to improve human wellbeing by focusing more on Personal Safety. Of issues covered by the Foundations of Wellbeing Dimension, Mexico excels at providing building blocks for people’s lives such as Health and Wellness but would benefit from greater investment in Access to Information and Communications. Of issues covered by the Opportunity Dimension, Mexico outperforms in providing opportunities for people to improve their position in society and scores highly in Personal Rights yet falls short in Access to Higher Education.

This is how Mexico’s performance stacks up in comparison to the other 49 countries in the survey:

  • Social Progress Index: score 49.7 = rank 25th
  • Basic Human Needs: 49.3 (29th)
  • Foundations of Wellbeing: 50.8 (23rd)
  • Opportunity: 49.1 (25th)

This post is based on a press release from the Social Progress Imperative. For more information about the methodology behind the Social Progress Index, please refer to the inaugural report.

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Major factual inaccuracies in “Water Pollution Plagues Mexico’s Scenic Pacific Coast” result in its removal from Earth Island Institute website

 Mexico's geography in the Press  3 Responses »
May 272013
 

Kudos to the Earth Island Institute for responding to the many criticisms we and others made of a blog article (“Water Pollution Plagues Mexico’s Scenic Pacific Coast”) by pulling it from their website. The following post has been edited to reflect that fact.

Water quality is a serious concern in many parts of Mexico and Geo-Mexico regularly includes short articles about the main issues as well as case studies related to water pollution (see “Related posts” below).

Ron Granich, a regular Geo-Mexico reader who lives in Pátzcuaro (Michoacán) and recognizes our keen interest in Mexico’s water quality kindly drew our attention to a recent article published on the website of the Earth Island Journal. Sadly, the blog article left much to be desired. The article was subtitled, “Tourists largely unaware that industrial pollution from rivers upstream is making them sick”, and attempted to argue that the pollution of Mexico’s Santiago River is a direct cause of the poor water quality of beach towns such as Sayulita.

The slight problem with this thesis is that the Santiago River flows nowhere near Sayulita and has no connection to the miniscule Sayulita River, far to its south (see map). There is no question that the Santiago is polluted. It collects serious pollutants from the major industrial area of El Salto (a short distance southeast of Guadalajara) and from Guadalajara, and from many smaller settlements along the way. More contaminants are added near its mouth, where the swampy delta has been transformed into productive fields, including tobacco plantations.

Main rivers of Western Mexico.

Map of the main rivers of Western Mexico. Credit: Tony Burton / Geo-Mexico; all rights reserved.

Pollution of the River Santiago is particularly evident at the Juanacatlán Falls near El Salto:

After the Juanacatlán Falls, the Santiago flows in a deep, steep-sided canyon for most of its course (which explains why no fewer than three major dams for hydro-electric power have been built along this stretch, including the one at La Yesca) before meandering across its delta to flow into the Pacific Ocean a short distance north of San Blas.

The Santiago River has no conceivable influence on the pollution levels in the rivers near Sayulita and San Francisco or indeed on beaches in their vicinity. This is not to say that those beaches are clean. The beaches of the Nayarit Riviera may indeed have high levels of Enterococcus spp, as we reported recently when looking at the murky world of water statistics in Mexico.

Note on clean water standards in Mexico and the USA:

It is sometimes argued that Mexico and the USA have different standards for what represents “clean water”. For marine (beach) environments, the U.S. limit is 35 Enterococci per 100 ml. of water, and is based on calculating a geometric mean of counts performed over a five week period. This method greatly reduces the impact of peak Enterococci counts. However, the Mexican limit of 100 Enterococci/100 ml. is based on a single sample maximum value. As explained in this US EPA technical document, Water Quality Standards for Coastal Recreation Waters: Using Single Sample Maximum Values in State Water Quality Standards, the two limits are approximately equivalent in terms of water quality. In other words, a geometric mean of 35 Enterococci/100 ml. means that the water is about as clean as a single maximum value of 100 Enterococci/100 ml.

Water quality IS a major concern in much of Mexico, and we applaud the Earth Island Institute for seeking to draw attention to the issues involved, and for their recent action in removing the original article, which helps to ensure that discussions of these issues are based on facts and not on misconceptions.

As always, we welcome discussion about this (and all our posts) via the comments feature. If the comments feature is not visible, simply click the title of the relevant post, and scroll down.

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Tultepec: the fireworks capital of Mexico

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May 252013
 

No Mexican festival is complete without a dazzling display of fireworks. Gunpowder was unknown in Mexico prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, but its use in fireworks quickly caught on. Firework production is usually a small-scale family affair, and there are workshops specializing in fireworks throughout the country. The undisputed  capital of fireworks is Tultepec, a settlement with 130,000 inhabitants on the northern edge of Mexico City. Generations of expertise have led to Tultepec becoming the source for about half of all the fireworks manufactured in Mexico.

  • Tultepec: Mexico’s Skyrocket Central from The Southwest Center, by Dan Duncan (26-min video)

To celebrate its skilled pyrotechnic craftsmen, Tultepec hosts a 9-day National Pyrotechnic Festival in March each year. The festival, first held in 1989, includes competitions for the best castillos (castles) and toros (bulls) or toritos (little bulls). Castillos can be several stories high, with an intricate interconnected network of sections representing saints, animals, flowers, birds and other designs. Toritos, first recorded in the nineteenth century, are bull-shaped frames placed over the heads of willing volunteers. As the firecrackers explode, the toritos are carried through the streets or dance in imitation of a bull fight as young bystanders pretend to be matadors. About 250 toritos ran the streets of Tultepec in 2013.

The manufacturing of fireworks is tightly controlled by the military, but accidents are all too common and often serious, sometimes fatal. About 2,000 people work directly in the industry, in some 300 small workshops. The creativity of these coheteros (fireworks makers) knows few limits. For example, mid-way through this video, look for the small, firework-propelled vehicle that goes alternately forwards, then backwards, entirely on its own once its fuse has been ignited.

Want to read more?

  • Mexico’s Fireworks Capital by Matthew Power

How well do you know Mexico? The geography of Mexico: Quiz 3

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May 232013
 

Welcome to our third quiz about the geography of Mexico.

Previous quizzes:

How many of the following can you answer correctly?

If you answer a question incorrectly, you can have more attempts at each question before the answer is revealed.

Good Luck!

[mtouchquiz 3]

 Tagged with:

How can Mexico City find sufficient water?

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May 202013
 

What happens if or when Mexico City needs more water than it is using at present? There are several options, depending on whether authorities choose to modify demand, supply, or both in order to improve the future situation.

In terms of managing (reducing) demand, conservation measures are one possibility. Changing consumer habits may require not only educational programs, but also usage tariffs that reflect the true costs of supply, and that encourage consumers to install water-saving devices and introduce water-saving practices in their daily lives. Demand would also be reduced if less water was lost through leakage. As mentioned in a previous post, in 2009, the National Water Commission (Conagua) estimated that a staggering 40% of potable water nationwide was being lost through leaks in city and municipal systems, with a further 20% not properly accounted for due to billing errors and clandestine connections.

Managing demand may be easier to achieve than managing supply, given that recent efforts to increase supply have met with concerted opposition from environmentalists and the people living in the areas from which water would be transferred to the city. In the last half of the twentieth century, while one political party (PRI) held power, it was possible for politicians to largely ignore the conflicts resulting from inter-basin transfers, arguing that their “solutions” served a national need. Now that local, state and federal politics are more contested, that approach is potential political suicide.

From a political perspective, the most acceptable source of additional water for Mexico City would probably be the recently identified deep aquifer described in Mexico’s major cities confront serious water supply issues. However, that discovery requires further research before its maximum sustainable yield can be determined or it can be brought into service.

Less politically acceptable are the various proposals to bring water from elsewhere to satisfy the thirst of Mexico City. One of the most frequently voiced suggestions is to add a fourth phase to the Cutzamala scheme (see Where does Mexico City get its water from?) to increase the amount of water it supplies by more than 25% to 24 m³/s. In addition, the plan would provide treatment for 42 m3/s of wastewater. This fourth phase, known as the Temascaltepec project (see map), would require the construction of a 120-meter-high, 740-meter-long dam on the Temascaltepec River to create a reservoir with a capacity of 65 million m³.

Map of the Cutzamala project

Map of the Cutzamala project. Click to enlarge.

Aqueducts and a 19-km-long tunnel would carry the water to the Valle de Bravo reservoir. The estimated cost would be $500 million. The Temascaltepec project is opposed by environmentalists and locals and is not likely to get under way any time soon. The residents of the villages near the proposed dam site are afraid that the project would cause their local springs to dry up and would adversely impact their farming of maize, sugar cane, banana, tomato, melon and peas.

To the south of Mexico City, an entirely different proposal is to bring water from the Amacuzac, Tecolutla and Atoyac Rivers, by damming the Amacuzac River, creating a 67 km2 reservoir (between the states of Morelos, Guerrero and Puebla) capable of storing 4,000 million cubic meters. Supplying Mexico City would require a 160 km long aqueduct, and would involve pumping water to a height of 1825 meters, requiring up to 5% of Mexico’s annual national electricity production. On the plus side, this could reduce the future abstraction of groundwater by as much as 50 m³/s.

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Review of Geo-Mexico by Felisa Churpa Rosa Rogers (The People’s Guide to Mexico)

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May 152013
 

Our grateful thanks to Felisa Churpa Rosa Rogers for the following review which appeared in The People’s Guide to Mexico, March 2011:

Growing up in a parochial school system, I was under the impression that the subject geography was limited to identifying countries by their shapes. Richard Rhoda and Tony Burton’s Geo-Mexico: The Geography and Dynamics of Modern Mexico drove the last nail in the coffin of my childhood misconception. Although it has its share of maps, the volume illustrates both the richness of geography as a field of study and the spectrum of cultural, economic, and environmental anomalies that make Mexico so eternally fascinating.

Due to its format and content, Geo-Mexico: The Geography and Dynamics of Modern Mexico is essentially a text book, albeit a rather excellent one. Don’t let that deter you. Although packed with interesting statistics, this book has more to offer: the authors are unafraid to make concrete assertions without miring their observations in academic qualifiers. Burton and Rhoda state facts in a fresh style, provide compelling statistics, and clearly explain all terms and concepts.

Every time a boring-sounding chapter title had me contemplating skipping ahead, I’d find a gem that kept me reading. For example, the chapter “Transportation: The Movement of People and Goods” drew me in with a tidbit about the transportation of silver bullion from Zacatecas in the 16th Century. I was glad I persevered because I stumbled across a fascinating segment on the cultural exchange between the Philippines and Mexico, which began in 1565 when Spain established an import route from The Philippines that crossed Mexico, shipping in at Acapulco and out again at Veracruz.

“..Spanish galleons carried Mexican silver to Manila and returned with spices, silk, porcelain, lacquer ware and other exotic goods from the Orient. ..Many Mexicans settled in Manila and a sizable Filipino community was established in Acapulco. Scores of Nahuatl words entered Tagalog, the main Filipino language. The Filipino currency is still called the peso. In the return direction, Filipinos taught Mexicans the distillation process which enabled the production of tequila.”

If history isn’t your game, Rhoda and Burton provide hard data on immigration, crime, population growth, the effects of NAFTA, ecosystems, and tourism’s impact on the environment. Because I write about Mexico, I will treasure Geo-Mexico: The Geography and Dynamics of Modern Mexico as a resource, but I highly recommend this volume to educators, students, and anyone with more than a passing interest in the culture, history, terrain, economy, politics, or development of the country.

[The People’s Guide to Mexico, March 2011]

Hurricane names and forecast for 2013

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May 112013
 

The 2013 hurricane season in Mexico is underway. The “official” hurricane season is from 15 May to 30 November each year for Pacific coast storms, and from 1 June to 30 November for Atlantic storms, though most hurricane activity is concentrated in the months from July to September. Hurricanes are also known as typhoons or tropical cyclones.

The table shows the World Meteorological Organization’s official list of 2012 hurricane names. Note that male and female names alternate. Names are often reused in future years, with the exception of the names of any particularly violent storms, which are officially “retired” from the list for a long time.

2013 Hurricane Names for the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean
AndreaGabrielleLorenzoRebekah
BarryHumbertoMelissaSebastien
ChantalIngridNestorTanya
DorianJerryOlgaVan
ErinKarenPabloWendy
Ferdinand

2013 Hurricane Names for the Eastern Pacific
AlvinGilManuelTico
BarbaraHenrietteNardaVelma
CosmeIvoOctaveWallis
DalilaJuliettePriscillaXina
ErickKikoRaymondYork
FlossieLorenaSoniaZelda

In their early season forecast for this year, Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, researchers at Colorado State University,  expect hurricane activity in the Atlantic to be significantly higher than the 1981-2010 average. They write that, “The tropical Atlantic has anomalously warmed over the past several months, and it appears that the chances of an El Niño event this summer and fall are unlikely”. (A strong el Niño is likely to minimize Atlantic hurricane activity). They predict that in the 2013 season 18 named storms will form in the Atlantic: 9 tropical storms, 5 moderate hurricanes (1 or 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale), and 4 severe hurricanes (3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale). These forecasts will be updated on 3 June and 2 August.

saffir-simpson-scale

For the Pacific coast, Mexico’s National Meteorological Service (Servicio Metrológico Nacional, SMN) is expecting 14 named storms: 6 tropical storms, 4 moderate hurricanes (1 or 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale), and 4 severe hurricanes (3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale). The SNM publishes regular updates on hurricane activity (in Spanish) on its webpage and via its Twitter account: @huracanconagua.

How accurate was the forecast in 2012?

The late season (3 August) prediction for 2012 (last year) was for 14 named storms in the Atlantic: 8 tropical storms, 4 moderate hurricanes and 2 severe hurricanes. In reality, the 2012 Atlantic season had 19 named storms: 9 tropical storms, 8 moderate hurricanes and 2 severe hurricanes.

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Where does Mexico City get its water?

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May 092013
 

Mexico City is one of the world’s largest cities, and the metropolitan area of Greater Mexico City (map) extends well beyond the borders of the Federal District (Mexico City proper) into neighboring states, especially the State of Mexico.  The total population of Greater Mexico City is about 22 million, all of whom need safe access to water.

An old joke relates how engineers initially rejoiced at successfully draining the former lake on which Mexico City was built (something the Aztecs had tried, but failed to achieve), only to discover that the city now lacked any reliable source of fresh water for its inhabitants (something the Aztecs had successfully managed by building a system of aqueducts). Water has been a major issue for Mexico City ever since it was founded almost 700 years ago.

The Mexico City Metropolitan Area’s water supply is currently calculated to be around 82 m³/s. (The precise figure is unclear because many wells are reportedly unregistered). The main sources of water (and their approximate contributions to total water supply) are:

  • Abstraction of groundwater (73%)
  • Cutzamala system (18%)
  • Lerma system (6%)
  • Rivers and springs (3%)

In several previous posts we have looked at several issues arising from groundwater abstraction:

In this post we focus on the Cutzamala system (see graphic), one of Mexico’s most ambitious engineering feats of its time.

Cutzamala scheme

Cutzamala scheme (click to enlarge). Source: IMTA (1987)

The Cutzamala system supplies potable water to 11 boroughs (delegaciones) of the Federal District and 11 municipalities in the State of Mexico. The Cutzamala system is one of the largest water supply systems in the world, in terms of both the total quantity of water supplied (about 485 million cubic meters/yr) and in terms of the 1100 meters (3600 feet) difference in elevation that has to be overcome. The system cost about $1.3 billion, and was undertaken in three successive phases of construction, completed in 1982 (Villa Victoria dam), 1985 (incorporation of the Valle de Bravo and El Bosque dams, originally built in the 1940s and 1950s) and 1993 respectively.

As Cecillia Tortajada points out in Who Has Access to Water? Case Study of Mexico City Metropolitan Area, the investment of $1.3 billion was, at the time (1996), “higher than the national investment in the entire public sector in Mexico… in the areas of education ($700 million), health and social security ($400 million), agriculture, livestock and rural development ($105 million), tourism ($50 million), and marine sector ($60 million).”

The system includes 7 dams and reservoirs for storage, 6 major pumping stations (P.P. on the graphic) and a water purification plant. The volumes stored in the system are dependent on previous years’ rainfall. Water is transferred to the Valley of Mexico from more than 150 km away via reservoirs, pumping stations, open channels, tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts.

The Cutzamala system incorporates the Valle de Bravo and El Bosque dams, built originally as part of the “Miguel Alemán” project that generated hydro-electric power from the headwaters of the Cutzamala River (hence the name for the whole system). The reservoir at Valle de Bravo is an important resource for tourism and watersports. The hydro-electric power scheme is no longer functioning. The Cutzamala system has the capacity to supply up to 19 m³/s of water to the Valley of Mexico. In practice, it supplies almost 20% of the Valley of Mexico’s total water supply (usually quoted as being 82 m³/s).

The pumping required to lift water 1100 meters from the lowest storage point to the system’s highest point (from where gravity flow takes over) consumes a significant amount of energy, variously estimated at between 1.3 and 1.8 terawatt hours a year, equivalent to about 0.6% of Mexico’s total energy consumption, and representing a cost of about 65 million dollars/yr. This amount of electricity is claimed to be roughly equivalent to the annual energy consumption of the metropolitan area of Puebla (population 2.7 million).

The total operational costs for running the Cutzamala System are estimated at $130 million/yr. [all figures in US dollars]. Even operating at full capacity (19 m³/s or 600 million m³/yr), the approximate average cost of water would be $0.214/m³. The true costs are higher given that these calculations do not include the costs of treatment or distribution within the metropolitan area. The price charged to consumers averages about $0.20/m³.

The completion of the Cutzamala system involved resettling some villages. The plans included the construction of some 200 “social” projects to improve living conditions for the people most affected, including local potable water distribution systems, schools and roads. However, more than a decade after completion, there were still some unresolved conflicts concerning people forced to move, with many of them still claiming that they had received insufficient compensation.

Maintaining the Cutzamala system has been an on-going challenge. Most maintenance is scheduled for the Easter holiday period, when factories and offices close down and many Mexico City residents head for the beach, reducing demand for water. Since 1993, a parallel system of canals and pipelines has been built alongside the original system, allowing for sections of the old system to be shut down for maintenance, obviating the need to close the entire system whenever work is carried out.

Main sources:

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Swim at your peril through the murky data for Mexico’s beaches

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May 062013
 

In the past few months, it has become harder than ever to assess the cleanliness of Mexico’s beaches. Alejandro Calvillo, director of the consumer rights organization “El Poder del Consumidor” recently published an alarming blog post alleging that Mexican authorities have gone to considerable lengths in recent months to mask the true state of Mexico’s contaminated beaches. (Playas contaminadas en México, un secreto de Estado)

Drain on Mocambo Beach, Veracruz. Credit: La Voz del Sureste.

Drain on Mocambo Beach, Veracruz. Credit: La Voz del Sureste.

Calvillo explains that for several years, government agencies published regular monthly statistics relating to the cleanliness of all the country’s major swimming beaches. While some people queried the veracity of some figures, at least the data was publicly available, and provided some starting point for analysis and discussion. Indeed, this data allowed us to write in Geo-Mexico (p 46) that,

“Coastal waters are also regularly monitored for contamination. The percentage of Mexico’s resort beaches that met national water quality norms rose from 93.7% in 2003 (when 226 beaches in 35 destinations were tested) to 98.4% in 2007 (276 beaches in 46 destinations). Seawater at all coastal resorts is now well within the national standard except for Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo on the Guerrero coast.”

However, soon after the new administration (of president Enrique Peña Nieto) took office, Calvillo claims that a decision was made to cease releasing regular monthly data for beach contamination and to remove the historical time series of beach cleanliness data from government internet sites (such as those of the Health Secretariat and Environment Secretariat). Fortunately, Calvillo’s claims are not the whole truth. Data are still being published for many beaches, via an interactive webpage titled Playas Limpias (Clean Beaches) hosted by the Health Secretariat. However, it does appear to be true that the historical series of pre-2013 data have vanished, and that no data is available, even in 2013, for several beaches that were previously regularly monitored.

There is no doubt that in recent years hundreds of Mexican beaches have on occasion had excessive levels of Enterrococos faecalis, the main bacteriological indicator. (About a decade ago, counts of Enterococcus spp. replaced fecal coliform counts as the best way to assess the water quality at public salt water beaches.) The major source of contamination, despite years of campaigning by environmental groups, comes from hotels, towns and cities that continue to dispose of their effluent directly into the sea, often in close proximity to popular swimming beaches (see photo). Progress has been made in some states, including Jalisco, Nayarit and Veracruz, but there is still a long way to go.

water quality on beaches

Water quality on Mexican beaches, 2011. Source: Atlas Digital del Agua México 2012;
(green=good; yellow=moderate; red=poor)

Calvillo writes that official reports in 2011 (see map) listed 99 beaches where Enterococus levels had been found in excess of 200 Enterococci/100 ml of water on at least one occasion. Values over 200 Enterococci/100 ml are considered to pose a “health risk”, according to Mexican norms. Of these 99 beaches, 70 were on the Pacific coast. The worst beaches included 1 in Baja California Sur (La Paz), 4 in Nayarit (including Sayulita, Rincón de Guayabitos), 3 in Jalisco (including Playa del Cuale in Puerto Vallarta), 10 in Michoacán (including Caleta de Campos, Chuquapan and Playa Nexpa) and 3 in Guerrero. In the worst locations, the Enterococci count was over 20,000/100 ml.

Of the 29 beaches with excessive values on the Gulf of Mexico and on the Caribbean coast, the most polluted were on the Gulf of Mexico, including locations in Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Campeche.

In summer 2012, the 22 beaches that posed a health risk according to the data included Regatas (Veracruz), Rincón de Guayabitos (Nayarit) and Playa Carabali (aka Playa Hornos) in Acapulco (Guerrero).

Despite having made less data available for 2013, in the days leading up to the 2013 Easter vacation period, federal and state government officials repeatedly stressed that all beaches were clean and ready to receive the anticipated hordes of holidaymakers. It is difficult to assess the accuracy of these claims in the absence of more data. Were the beaches really clean, or were tourists in some destinations risking potentially serious gastrointestinal and other diseases every time they went swimming?

Adding another layer of complexity to interpreting the statistics is the fact that several states have massaged the data tables by selectively changing the names of some beaches, and omitting others. For example, Calvillo points out that in 2011 the state government of Veracruz renamed four beaches that had previously experienced high pollution levels so that their historical records would be hard to find:

  • Costa de Oro I became Gaviota II
  • Iguana Norte was renamed Tortuga II
  • Iguana Sur became Pelícano II
  • Penacho del Indio was renamed Pelícano I.

In 2012 Veracruz removed two beaches from its list completely: Iguana Centro and Acuario, which it deemed “no longer of interest to tourists,” perhaps because its 2009 count was a record-breaking 159,490 Enteroccocus/100 ml.

Veracruz is not the only state to have “tweaked” its data. Jalisco decided (in 2009) not to monitor either Conchas Chinas or Boca de Tomatlán, both of which had registered high levels of contamination in previous years. In the state of Guerrero, the main beach in Zihuatanejo (historically one of the most polluted beaches) has not been monitored since 2011 because of “technical problems”. [Note: Measurements began again here in 2013, at about the time this post was first published.]

The moral of this post? The absence of data for any particular beach should not be taken as indicating that it is not contaminated. On the contrary, the absence of data might perhaps better be interpreted as a sure sign that the beach HAS or MIGHT HAVE a problem!

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Cinco de Mayo – The Battle of Puebla, 1862

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May 052013
 

Note: This is a copy of an article by an unknown author (publication date also unknown) as found originally at http://webspace.webring.com/people/hi/ilg21/puebla.htm and cached on waybackmachine.com:

Author’s Note: This article was drawn from a set of notes created during a trip to Mexico City, most of which were destroyed in a subsequent flood. Details on the Republican forces – and the Mexican’s movements during the battle – are drawn from Mexican books which are presumably accurate, but for which I cannot vouch. (This type of legendary event is prone to some distortion.) Information regarding the French forces is much easier to find. This article should be taken as a best effort to document the battle, according to what sources I could find. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Painting of Battle of PueblaThe most celebrated battle of the French invasion of Mexico occurred at the town of Puebla, on the road to Mexico City from the landing sites at Vera Cruz. The French, in the Convention of La Soledad, had agreed to withdraw to the coast before resuming hostilities, having moved their men inland under the Convention’s protection to avoid the diseases of the coastal areas. When negotiations between Mexico and France broke down, the French, with Mexican permission, left some sick soldiers in the healthier highlands, on the condition that no fit soldiers remained. When the Mexicans saw Frenchmen walking and carrying their small arms, after all the fit soldiers had ostensibly gone, they protested to the French commander, Lorencz. Lorencz overreacted, deciding that the complaint indicated the impending murder of his sick troops, despite the fact that the Mexicans were satisfied as to the status of the suspects.

Consequently, the French did not complete their retreat to the coast, instead occupying Orizaba. This denied the Mexicans the ability to defend the passes between Orizaba and Vera Cruz. Zaragoza, the Mexican commander, fell back on his second line of defense, the steep pass of Aculzingo. Here, on April 28, the French and Mexicans fought a sharp engagement in which the Mexicans were easily beaten.

Zaragosa retreated to the fortified town of Puebla, which had been both defended and taken during the Wars of Reform (1857-1860), and was protected by five forts arranged on the hills outside the town. He had some 12,000 effectives in the Army of the East, not all of whom were deployed in the town. Lorencz’s Conservative Mexican advisers had fought at Puebla during the recent conflict, and advised him to attack it from the east, instead of the north, which was the French line of approach. Lorencz ignored the advice, advancing straight on the city. (He had heard that the population was friendly to the French, and was only kept in line by the Republican garrison. Thus, he thought a show of strength would cause the population to rise up, and the Republicans to crumble. This was to be proven badly wrong.) He established himself in the town of Amozoc on May 4.

Map of Battle of Puebla(The map here represents a 5′ x 9′ wargames table at approximately 1″ = 25 yards. Note that the arrow labelled “North” is actually pointing east!)

The French formed up at the Garita de Peaje early the next morning, after a brief skirmish with the Mexican cavalry and a reconnaissance of the area. The troops were drawn up in three columns: the first to attack Fort Guadalupe directly, was supported by the fire of the three batteries of French artillery, and contained the two battalions of the 2nd Zouaves. The second column, to the right of the first, contained only the Naval Infantry battalion. It was to act as a flank guard against mexican attacks from that quarter. The third column, consisting of only the 1st battalion of the 3rd Marine Fusiliers, was deployed to the left of the first column and assigned the role of supporting the attack on Guadalupe. The two battalions of the 99th Line infantry, the 2nd battalion of the Marine Fusiliers, the 1st Chasseurs a Pied, and the Chasseurs de Vincennes were held in reserve under the command of Colonel L’Heriller. The single squadron of Chasseurs d’Afrique was assigned to guard the flanks of the advance against the Mexican cavalry. A small party of engineers was assigned to each column.

To the north of Puebla, the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe crowned the tops of two heights, connected by a fortified road running just over the peak of the hill. Zaragoza drew up his army to the east of Fort Guadalupe (the easternmost of the two), facing north, so that he could maneuver to face an attack from north or east as necessary. He sent out a skirmisher screen, with his cavalry deployed all the way to his right (60 troopers were initially detached to observe the French), and the Zappadores were deployed on the slope between his left flank and the fort. The end of his infantry line (Diaz’ brigade)was deployed in a brickworks (“La Ladrillera”).

At 11:00 AM, the French bombarded Fort Guadalupe from a distance of about 2,500 yards, causing some damage and casualties. Lorencz advanced his batteries a few hundred yards and resumed the bombardment, this time to no effect. After an hour and a half of bombardment, with half his shells gone, he ordered his troops forward in an assault on the fort.

They were fired on by artillery from both forts, and came under a good deal of musketry; during the French approach, Zaragosa had countermarched the brigades of Lamadrid and Berriozabal and half of the cavalry under Alvarez to protected positions between the forts. The French advanced three times, each assault coming closer than the last. The reserves were slowly committed, until the entire French force was engaged. For the second assault, a double attack was made, not just on Fort Guadalupe, but also towards the town, on the east. This diversionary attack resulted in fierce hand-to-hand combat involving the Zappadores and some other Republican troops, and the Chasseurs de Vincennes, the squadron of Chasseurs d’Afrique, and the 1st battalion of the 99th Line. The Chasseurs a Pied and the zouaves made a final push on Fort Guadalupe, one soldier scaling the walls to plant the Tricolor there, but the man was killed and the flag torn down. The third assault found the French artillery out of ammunition, so the attacks were unsupported. At one point the Morelia battalion in Fort Guadalupe broke and fled, but Arriate rallied the men and they returned to their positions before the fort, defended only by the gunners, could be captured.

After the final assault was repulsed, Zaragoza ordered his cavalry on the right, under Felix Diaz, to charge the French; this worked admirably, accompanied by a simultaneous cavalry movement on the left. At the same time, the troops concealed along the road between the forts wheeled out toward the retreating French, pivoting on their right flank. The Chasseurs a Pied formed square to cover their army’s withdrawal from the Mexican cavalry.

At 3:00 PM it began to rain, the afternoon thunderstorm having been a daily occurrence for a week and more. The ground in front of the forts became very slippery, and at 4:00 PM Lorencz withdrew to positions further back from the town, to await the Mexican counter-attack. His casualties were 462 killed and 8 captured. The Mexicans lost 83 killed and 131 wounded, with 12 captured or missing.

Zaragoza, knowing both the political effects of the French repulse and the improbability of defeating the French in the open field, held his ground. After two days of waiting, Lorencz withdrew to Orizaba. News of the battle was received in France as a challenge to the national honor, and an additional 29,000 men (and a new overall commander – Forey) were sent to Mexico. The French later returned to besiege and take the town, but the victory in 1862 became the holiday we know – Cinco de Mayo – a symbol of the victory of the people over the agents of foreign imperialism.

Orders of Battle

French

  • Major-General de Lorencz
  • 1st Chasseurs a Pied – 1 battalion (720)
  • Chasseurs de Vincennes – 1 battalion (700)*
  • 99th Line Infantry – 2 battalions (1544)
  • 2nd Zouaves – 2 battalions (1143)
  • 2nd Squadron, 2nd Chasseurs d’Afrique (173)
  • 2nd Marine (Colonial) Infantry Regt. – 2 battalions (1280)
  • Naval Infantry – 1 battalion (480)
  • 1st Battery, 9th Artillery Regt. (six 12#)
  • 2nd Battery, Marine Artillery (six 4#)
  • Marine Mountain Howitzer Battery (six 4#)

* This unit was a volunteer (foot) chasseur unit, mostly made up of veterans recently discharged from disbanded Chasseur a Pied battalions. It would be exactly like the regular chasseurs, and probably wore a similar uniform.

Notes: Numbers in parenthesis were French strengths at landing in Vera Cruz. Note that a portion of the French would have succumbed to illness (only 6,000 out of around 7,000 took the field). The strengths given here may thus be slightly high. French artillery was rifled muzzle-loaders. The French infantry all carried the Minie rifle, and the Chasseurs d’Afrique were equipped with the 1842 percussion musket (dragoon pattern). French infantry was generally quite good, especially the zouaves. Note that the Naval Infantry are in fact sailors, dressed much as they were during the defense of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War (although they may have worn the tropical white uniforms instead of blue). The Marine Infantry are not sailors, but marines, dressed in a fashion similar to the line infantry, but with dark blue (some sources say light blue-grey) trousers with a red stripe down the leg.

Republican Mexican

Army of the East: General Zaragoza

  • Commander of the Interior Lines: General Miguel Negrete (in charge of forts Guadalupe and Loreto)
  • Fort Loreto: General Rojo
    “Reforma” battalion from Brigade of Morelia (600)
  • Fort Guadalupe: General Arriata
    One battalion from Brigade of Morelia (600)
  • Reserve: Colonel Juan N. Mendez (300)
    60th Battalion Nacional of Puebla, plus companies of Tetela, Xochapulco, Zacapoaxtla, and Apulco

Field Army

  • Infantry Brigade: General Felipe Berriozabal (1082)
  • 1st Battalion of Toluca
  • 3rd Battalion of Toluca
  • Fijo de Vera Cruz Battalion
  • Infantry Brigade: Colonel Francisco LaMadrid (1020)
  • Rifles of San Luis (initially deployed in front of the Mexican position as a skirmish line)
  • Zapadores Battalion (Colonel Miguel Balcazar)
  • Reforma Battalion of San Luis Potosí
  • Infantry Brigade: General Porfirio Diaz (1000)
  • Guerrero Battalion (Lt. Colonel Mariano Jimenez)
  • Rifle Battalion
  • Cavalry: General Antonio Alvarez (610)
  • Provisional Regiment (under Alvarez’ command)
  • Regt. Carabineros a Caballo, 2 squadrons (?)
  • Regt. Lancers of Toluca, 2 squadrons
  • Provisional Regiment: Lieutenant Felix Diaz (Porfirio’s brother)
  • Trujano Squadron (Major Casimiro Ramirez)
  • Regt. Lancers of Toluca, 1 squadron
  • Regt. Lancers of Oaxaca, 2 squadrons (?)

“?” indicates uncertainty about how many squadrons were present

  • Artillery

18 guns in three batteries, all smoothbore muzzle-loaders, probably 12#. One battery (“Vera Cruz”) is in Fort Guadalupe; one battery is in Fort Loreto, and one is deployed with P. Diaz’ brigade.

Notes: The Mexican infantry were equipped with smoothbore percussion muskets. The Zapadores battalion was one of the elite formations of the Republican army, designated an “engineer unit (and thus probably with black facings instead of thye infantry’s red or the rifles’ green), but fighting (I believe) as infantry in this battle. This army was made up of veterans from the Wars of Reform, and would possibly retain the older grey uniforms of that force. It should be noted that Mexican cavalry almost always carried the lance, despite designations, and would have smoothbore percussion carbines if any firearms were carried at all.

Notes on the Map: The rivers shown on the map are fordable at all points, although paintings of the period show them as flowing through ravines. The hills are gentle slopes, which the Mexicans advanced across in line formation at the end of the battle. The woods would be very light scrub brush, this basically being arid farmland. Two black rectangles toward the bottom of the map represent “La Ladrillera”, a brickworks, just south of Fort Guadalupe, and the “Garita de Amozoc”, a train station, further east. The town of Puebla, while walled, was open in the areas shown on this map, if period paintings can be believed.

Will Mexico City add cable cars to its mass transit system?

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Apr 292013
 

Mexico City is one of the world’s largest cities, and the metropolitan area of Greater Mexico City (population about 22 million) extends well beyond the borders of the Federal District (Mexico City proper) into neighboring states. The city is ringed by hills. Homes have sprawled up the hillsides, often in a haphazard or unplanned way, gradually becoming established, densely-packed settlements of low cost housing, but often lacking adequate access by road for the number of people now living there. This is a particularly serious problem where settlements have been built on marginal land, in hazardous locations where the slopes are too steep or where the land is dissected by canyons. Given the terrain, it would be very expensive to improve road access sufficiently to ensure a smooth daily flow of commuters.

Unfortunately, many of these areas of the city are not reached by the city’s metro system, so the only public transport is by using microbuses, colectivos or peseros (so-called because the fare was originally one peso).

Similar cable car system in a South American city. Credit: unknown

Similar cable car system in a South American city. Credit: unknown

Earlier this year, officials from both the Federal District and the State of Mexico suggested that the answer to the transport problems of some of these marginal zones could be resolved by adding cable cars to the city’s transit system. Similar systems are already used in some cities in South America, including Medellín (Colombia).

The State of Mexico is considering installing five cable cars (teleféricos) in different parts of Greater Mexico City. The proposed system, christened “Mexicable”, would have several lines between 5 and 7 km in length. Feasibility studies for the first two lines are already underway. The first line, in the Ecatepc municipality (see map), would link San Andrés de la Cañada and la Sierra de Guadalupe, while the second line in Naucalpan would run between El Molinito and Chamapa. If approved, the state would help the municipalities concerned finance the construction of the cable car system, which would probably then be operated on a concession basis by a private operator.

The initial proposal claims that between 50 and 60 cabins, each holding 8-12 people, would leave every 12 seconds or so, allowing for the movement of up to 2800 people an hour at peak times, and up to 20,000 people each day. The system is likely to cost around $5 million (dollars) a kilometer and could be operation before the end of 2014. The government of the State of Mexico has already committed $80 million towards the preparatory studies needed for the Ecatepec cable car system.

Mexico City Metropolitan Area (Geo-Mexico Fig 22.2; all rights reserved)

Spatial growth of Mexico City Metropolitan Area (Geo-Mexico Fig 22.2; all rights reserved)

In the Federal District, a similar system, known as “Cablebús”, is being touted an an integral part of a city-wide mobility program for the next five years. The first Cablebús would run from the Sierra de Santa Catarina to Iztapalapa metro station, in the south-eastern borough (delegación) of Iztapalapa, one of the lowest-income parts of the city.

Unlike Mexico’s existing cable cars, in cities like Durango and Zacatecas, these systems are definitely aimed to serve the local people in their daily lives, and are not designed as tourist attractions. Commuting by cable car could soon become the accepted way to get to work for some residents of Mexico City, a more rapid and less-polluting alternative to existing transport options.

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Several Mexican cities rank among the American Cities of the Future

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Apr 272013
 

The American Cities of the Future 2013/14 rankings were published recently by the fDi Intelligence division of the U.K. Financial Times. The rankings are designed to identify the most promising destinations around the world for future inward investment.

Data were collected for 422 cities relating to more than 70 criteria, grouped into five main categories: Economic Potential, Human Resources, Cost Effectiveness, Infrastructure and Business Friendliness. Each city was awarded a score out of 10 for each criterion, with the criteria weighted by their importance to the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) decision-making process.

  • Economic Potential eg GDP growth, Unemployment rate, Number of patents per 100,000 people
  • Human Resources eg Number of students,  Labor force with tertiary education (%), Number of international baccalaureate schools
  • Cost Effectiveness eg Rent for prime grade office space, Global grade 14 (middle manager) salary, Energy prices, Cost of establishing a business
  • Infrastructure eg Internet speed, Distance to nearest airport, Environmental performance index
  • Business Friendliness eg Number of companies in the knowledge-based sector, Corporation tax rate, Corruption perception

The top ranked city in the Americas overall (for attractiveness for inward investment) remained New York City (which attracts 1% of global FDI), followed by Sao Paulo, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. In Latin America, Sao Paulo was followed by Santiago (Chile), Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. The top-ranked Mexican cities were Monterrey in 6th place and Mexico City which ranked #8 of the top ten.

The cities were categorized by population size:

  • Major (49 cities) – cities with a population of more than 750,000 people plus a metropolitan area of more than 2 million, or that are the center of a metropolitan area of more than 4 million.
  • Large (52 cities) – cities with a population of more than 500,000 plus a metropolitan area of more than 1 million, or the focus of a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people.
  • Mid-sized (80 cities) – cities with a population of more than 350,000 people or of more than 200,000 people plus a metropolitan area population of more than 750,000.
  • Small (196 cities) – Cities with a population of between 100,000 and 350,000.
  • Micro (43 cities) – cities with a population of fewer than 100,000.

City-Map-Blog-Post2

Mexico’s cities performed very strongly in the “cost effectiveness” sub-rankings, mainly due to their favorable wage rates. The top ten in the major city cost effectiveness rankings (with rank in brackets) included Puebla (4), Guadalajara (6), Monterrey (7) and Mexico City (10). Of these four cities, only Mexico City made the top ten for Business Friendliness.

Mexico dominated the cost effectiveness rankings for large cities, taking eight of the top ten with San Luis Potosí (3), Cd. Juárez (4), Aguascalientes (5), Zapopan (6), Torreón (7), León (8), Tijuana (9) and Ecatepec (10) and did almost as well in the mid-sized cities category, with Mazatlán (5), Durango (6), Morelia (7), Tuztla Gutiérrez (8), Mérida (9) and Saltillo (10). Saltillo was the the top-performing mid-sized city for economic potential in the Americas, with strong GDP growth helping to entice investments, especially those related to vehicle parts and manufacture.

In the cost effectiveness rankings for small cities, Guaymas (2), Colima (3) and Nogales (4) all made the top ten, while in the comparable listings for micro cities, Atlacomulco (in the State of Mexico) was the number 1 ranked city in the Americas.

Mexico’s major cities confront serious water supply issues

 Updates to Geo-Mexico  1 Response »
Apr 262013
 

An amendment to Mexico’s constitution in 2011 made access to potable water a basic human right, but Mexico’s major cities face unprecedented challenges in meeting future demands for drinking water. In this post we look at some of the water supply issues relating to Mexico City and Guadalajara.

In 2009, the National Water Commission (Conagua) estimated that a staggering 40% of potable water nationwide was being lost through leaks in city and municipal systems, with a further 20% not properly accounted for due to billing errors and clandestine connections. Conagua recently announced a new plan for Mexico City, that it hopes will safeguard that city’s water supply for the next 25 years. (OOSKAnews 18 April 2013)

The plan creates a new metropolitan decision-making body, which will be empowered to choose which sources of water will be used, set timelines and commitments, and monitor all activities carried out under the plan. Conagua head David Korenfeld said that establishing a single water management body for the entire metropolitan zone in the Valley of Mexico means that, “there exists no possibility of misinterpretation in collaboration”. At present, several different water management bodies have responsibility for different parts of the Metropolitan Area, which extends well beyond the boundaries of the Federal District (México D.F.) into the neighboring State of México (Estado de México).

Korenfeld argues that potable water prices must be related to the real costs of water production, system maintenance and service delivery, and that subsidies must be cut in order to achieve efficient, sustainable and equitable water management. According to Conagua data, water tariffs in the Valley of Mexico cover only  51% of the true costs of service provision.The new plan calls for the existing Cutzamala water system to be completely restructured, with an alternative channel created to bring water to the city.

sacm officeRamón Aguirre Díaz, the director of the Mexico City Water System (SACM) which would come under the new decision-making body, says that one of the main challenges is to ensure adequate water supply to the municipality of Iztapalapa. Iztapalapa is the most populous and fastest growing of the city districts, with over 90% of its territory urbanized. The SACM is suggesting a six-year, 150-million-dollar plan to resolve the situation, which would include waiving water charges for some areas where service has been poor and sporadic. Aguirre stressed the need for the government and society “to succeed in reducing water consumption and improve their habits”, saying that consumption needs to be cut by at least 30%.

Coincidentally, it is in Iztapalapa where the findings from several deep wells allowed Mexico City engineers and geologists to announce earlier this year that a 40-million-dollar study conducted over 18 months had identified a major new aquifer under Mexico City. The city has an average elevation of 2240 meters above sea level; the new aquifer, which could become a major new source of potable water, is located 2000 meters beneath the surface. The initial announcement claimed that the aquifer could supply as much as 80,000 liters of water a second.

Conagua officials cautioned that the potential usable flow of this aquifer still has to be confirmed and that it may take a further three years of research to establish the maximum sustainable yield.  The aquifer might indeed relieve Mexico City’s physical water scarcity (volumes of supply) at some point in the future, but it would not necessarily overcome the economic water scarcity (cost of supply) faced by many of its residents. (For more about economic water scarcity, see How fast is the ground sinking in Mexico City and what can be done about it?).

Frederick Mooser, arguably Mexico’s most distinguished geologist, was quoted in the press as saying that the indication of very large reserves of water below a depth of 1500 meters might well alleviate the continued need to extract water from aquifers closer to the surface, extraction that has caused so many problems for the city’s infrastructure. The major aquifer used currently lies at a depth of between 60 and 400 meters. There are about 630 wells in the Federal District alone; all are overexploited and have an average life expectancy of 30 years.

Mooser also pointed out that the results from the wells used to locate the new aquifer show that the area has considerable potential for geothermal power generation in the future.

Mexico’s second city, Guadalajara, also faces sever water management issues. According to a recent press report (OOSKAnews, 11 April 2013), Metropolitan Guadalajara loses 18% of its water through leaks in the supply system (a loss of around 41 million dollars in economic terms)

siapaAccording to an official from the city’s water utility, SIAPA, repairing ailing parts of the network (154 locations have been identified as “vulnerable”) could save most of the 4 million dollars a year currently being spent dealing with emergency repairs. However, the precise location of leaks is difficult to pinpoint because of a lack of metering equipment. In addition to the 18% lost through leaks, SIAPA believes another 12% goes unaccounted for as a result of clandestine connections and incorrect billing.

The biggest reason for leaks is the age of the system. Parts of the water supply networks in Mexico’s major cities are now over 70 years old. For example, in Guadalajara, more than 70% of the city’s 3458 km of main water supply lines is over 70 years old. Replacing the 2544 km of pipes older than 70 years would require investing around 300 million dollars, with a further 500 million dollars needed to upgrade the drainage system. SIAPA’s total investment in renewing and expanding systems is currently about 45 million dollars a year. The water firm is already said to be the most indebted decentralized public agency in the country, with debts of 240 million dollars.

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How tall is the average Mexican?

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Apr 232013
 

According to Mexico’s National Chamber for the Clothing Industry (Cámara Nacional de la Industria del Vestido, Conaive), this was an unanswered question prior to a randomized survey of 17,364 individuals carried out by INEGI in 2010-11 in four areas of the country. 49.3% of those measured were men, 50.7%  women.

The survey, limited to people over 18 years of age, found that the median height was 165 cm (5’4″) for Mexican males and 158 cm (5’2″) for females. The median weight was 74.8 kg (165 lb) for males and 68.7 kg (151 lb) for females.

Mexican soccer team at London Olympics

The height of success? Mexican soccer team at London Olympics

According to Conaive, Mexico was the first Latin American country to carry out a study of the average weight and height of its population.

The study entitled “¿Cuánto mide México? El tamaño sí importa” (“How big is Mexico? Size does matter”) found that among women 18-25 the average weight was 62.9 kg while men in that age group averaged 70.4 kg. The average height for young women was 161 cms versus 167 cms for young men. The heaviest men and women, on average, were in the 40-50 age range. Men in that age category weighed an average of 77.3 kg, while women averaged 72.2 kg.

On average, Mexicans are shorter than their counterparts in the USA and weigh about 10 kilos less.

A 2008 survey in the USA found males over age 20 averaged 176 cm in height and 88.3 kg in weight, compared to 162 cm and 74.7 kg for females. The same data show that those US residents of Mexican origin weigh more than their relatives back home, with men weighing (on average) about 7 kg more, and women 5 kg more.

Update – 2020

This alternative source of data, which gives different figures, is based on a smaller but more recent sample, and is also worth reading. Kudos to “Street Fight HQ” for bringing it to our attention.

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Whistling your way from A to B: the whistled language of the Chinantec people in Oaxaca (video)

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Apr 212013
 

One of the most curious of Mexico’s dozens of indigenous languages is the whistled language of one group of the Chinantec people who live in the state of Oaxaca. This group’s conventional spoken language is complemented by a language based entirely on whistles. Only a few people remain who speak this whistled language fluently. The language is whistled primarily by men (and much less fluently by children); female members of the group understand it but do not use it.

It is thought that whistled languages developed to enable communication between isolated settlements in areas that were too remote for conventional spoken languages to be effective. The Chinantec’s whistled language has three distinct subsets, designed to be used over different distances. The loudest enables effective communication over a distance of around 200 meters (650 ft).

The Whistled Language of Oaxaca, Mexico

The Chinantec whistled language is now largely confined to the mist- and fog-shrouded slopes of the eastern side of the Sierra Juárez in the northern part of Oaxaca state, a region of high rainfall totals and luxuriant vegetation.

This 27 minute documentary relates the field studies investigating the Chinantec whistling language conducted by Dr. Mark Sicoli, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. The main center of population of speakers of the whistling language is San Pedro Sochiapam. Sicoli believes that the whistled language may become extinct in the next decade; he hopes that his work documenting the language may one day provide the basis for its reintroduction or restoration.

A transcription of a whistled conversation in Sochiapam Chinantec between two men in different fields was available on the Summer Institute of Linguistics website, which also includes this useful summary of the Chinantec people and language. [at http://www-01.sil.org/mexico/chinanteca/sochiapam/13i-Conversacion-cso.htm in April 2013]

If you only have a few minutes to devote to this video, then look at the section around 16 minutes in, where in a controlled experiment, one experienced Chinantec whistler helps a friend “navigate” through a fictitious village. The men each have a copy of a made-up map of the village, but are out of sight and able to communicate only by whistling.

The astonishing whistled language of the Chinantec is yet another of Mexico’s many cultural wonders that currently appears to be headed for extinction.

Further reading:

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Striking photographs of Oaxaca by Cynthia Roderick

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Apr 162013
 

Cynthia Roderick is an award-winning photographer whose work has been widely published in major newspapers, magazines and TV news programs. However, I had not realized until recently that Roderick has a strong affection for Oaxaca. Several portfolios of work related to Oaxaca can be accessed via her website:

  • San Mateo Rio Hondo (40 images) San Mateo Río Hondo, a town and municipality in Oaxaca, is situated in the Miahuatlán District in the south of the Sierra Sur.
Credit: Copyright held by Cynthia Roderick

Credit: Copyright held by Cynthia Roderick

Festival Our Lady of Guadalupe – Image by Cynthia Roderick

Her informal images capture the personalities and sights of these events, warts and all. Roderick has a keen eye for subject matter, color and detail. Her fine photographs bring these events and the magic of Oaxaca to life for her viewers.

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Mexico’s geomorphosites: El Sótano de las Golondrinas (Cave of the Swallows)

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Apr 112013
 

El Sótano de las Golondrinas, in the municipality of Aquismón in the state of San Luis Potosí, is a massive limestone sinkhole (pit cave), one of the largest known in the world. In terms of depth, it is thought to be the second deepest sinkhole in Mexico and is probably in the world’s top 20.

The depth of sinkholes can be difficult to determine. For example, in the case of El Sótano de las Golondrinas, its surface opening is about 50 meters by 60 meters (160 by 200 ft) in size, but is on a slope. The depth on the high side is about 376 meters (1220 ft); the depth on the low side is about 330 meters (1090 ft).

sotano-de-las-golon

Below the surface (see profile) the sinkhole is roughly bottle-shaped. The floor of the sinkhole is about 300 x 135 meters (990 by 440 ft) in area. However, the sinkhole is believed to have formed from the collapse of the roof of an underground cave. As a result, the floor of the sinkhole is not solid rock but rubble that presumably came from the walls and former roof. A shaft on one side extends down at least another 100 m, suggesting that the true floor of the original cave lies at least that far beneath the current rubble-strewn floor.

US photographer Amy Hinkle shot some spectacular images earlier this year in this cave.  The accompanying article highlights the “secret garden” that “nestles 300 meters beneath the surface of the earth”.

The cave’s name (literally “basement of the swallows”) derives from the thousands of white-collared swifts that inhabit the overhanging walls of its interior. They spiral out of the cave every morning over a period of 25-30 minutes and return to their cave homes close to sunset. Large numbers of green parakeets also live in the cave.

The floor of the sinkhole is home to a rich plant life, as well as a diverse selection of  fungi, millipedes, insects, snakes, and scorpions.

The original cave is thought to have been formed by a lengthy period of water erosion along a major fault line in the lower Cretaceous limestone in the Sierra Huasteca (part of Mexico’s Eastern Sierra Madre). Over time, the cave became larger as a consequence of both the water erosion and due to mass movements (landslides, rockfalls) on its walls. Eventually, the size of the cave was so large that its walls could no longer support its roof which then collapsed into the cave, leaving the open air sinkhole seen today. Following heavy rain, short-lived waterfalls cascade down the sides of the sinkhole.

The first documented exploration of El Sótano de las Golondrinas was apparently in 1966. Since that time, the cave has become a popular destination for various adventure sports including rappelling, abseiling and base jumping (no longer allowed).

There are several other very deep sinkholes in the same general area, including Hoya de las Guasguas (with a 202 m deep entrance shaft) and Sótano del Barro (402 m in depth).

Some ornithological studies have found that the bird population of El Sótano de las Golondrinas is decreasing, perhaps due to the disturbance caused by the increasing number of human visitors. To limit disturbance, access and activities are more tightly controlled. For instance, descents into the cave are now strictly limited to daylight hours when the birds are absent, and a no-fly zone has been established around the cave, primarily to avoid helicopter disturbance.

El Sótano de las Golondrinas is yet another outstanding example of a geomorphosite in Mexico. Mexico has literally thousands of geomorphosites. Among those described in previous Geo-Mexico posts are:

References:

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Empty houses in Mexico

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Apr 082013
 

On-going rural-urban migration has led to a proliferation of metropolitan areas and the construction of millions of new homes across Mexico. Thirty years ago, there were only 15 recognized metropolitan areas in Mexico, today there are 59.

In recent decades, there has been insufficient coordination between the various government departments responsible for housing, services and land development, such that some settlements were authorized even though they lacked or had inadequate access to highways or basic services. In many instances, settlements were given the green light even though the ownership of the land was still in dispute.

A recent Mexico City news report entitled Desorden urbano dejó en el país millones de viviendas fantasmas claims that this poor planning in Mexico has resulted in as many as 4 million houses, many of them newly built, standing empty.

Among the settlements with a large number of uninhabited new homes is Santiago el Pinar in the heart of the southern state of Chiapas, home of the indigenous coffee–growing Tzotzil Indians who have traditionally lived in dispersed rural communities where access to central services is difficult. The previous federal administration built hundreds of homes here in its effort to “develop” the area into a “sustainable rural city” (whatever that means!). It was hoped that modern homes, located near services such a small, new hospital, would help give the Tzotzil a chance to escape poverty, though it did involve some relocation.

Santago el Pinar. Credit: glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com

Santago el Pinar. Credit: glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com

This BBC clip – Santiago el Pinar: One Square Mile of Mexico – describes the plan and some of the obstacles it has encountered.

The people’s traditional dwellings have dirt floors where food can be cooked over small fires. The new homes, designed by Marco Antonio Constantino, are mounted on stilts and have wooden floors, where traditional forms of indoor cooking would be hazardous. There were also some serious issues of construction quality, as well as a significant delay in supplying water to the new homes. All these factors combined have meant that almost all of the new homes have quickly been abandoned.

The lack of provision of basic services (water, electricity, drainage) is also cited as a factor why many new homes elsewhere in Mexico remain unoccupied.

In the past 20-30 years, Mexico’s largest homebuilders (companies such as Urbi, Geo and Homex) have done very well financially. They are now having to adjust to tougher times. Part of their problem, according to the Mexican financial press, is that government policy has shifted away from the construction of single-family units (such as those in Santiago de Pinar), which these big companies thrived on, towards building multi-family vertical units. The advantages of the latter are they reduce overall energy usage and the total cost associated with supplying other essential services.

This brief look at the issue of empty houses in Mexico suggests that while Mexico is certainly changing, and often for the better, change (as evidenced by Santiago de Pinar) is not necessarily synonymous with progress.

Want to read more?

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Mexico has the world’s highest level of energy security among large economies

 Mexico's geography in the Press, Updates to Geo-Mexico  Comments Off on Mexico has the world’s highest level of energy security among large economies
Apr 042013
 

According to a recently published U.S. Chamber of Commerce study of the largest energy-consuming nations, Mexico is the most energy secure country of the 25 countries in the large energy user group with a score 14% below the OECD average (see graph).

energy security graph (US Congress)

The study compiled an “International Index of Energy Security Risk”, taking into account 28 metrics including fossil-fuel imports, power generation and carbon-dioxide emissions, using data from sources such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Paris-based International Energy Administration.

Other countries with high levels of energy security included the U.K., Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia and the U.S. (Which tanked 7th overall. Energy security was lowest in the Ukraine, followed by Thailand, South Korea, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Turkey and Japan.

Mexico’s energy security has ranked as first or second among the large energy user group of countries every year since 1980. The metrics where Mexico has a significant comparative advantage over other OECD members include:

  • low amount it spends on fuel imports per dollar of GDP generated
  • low energy expenditures per dollar of GDP and per capita are also lower
  • low costs to produce electricity.
  • low amount of energy each person uses, both overall and in the transport sector
  • low amount of carbon dioxide each person emits

As the graph shows, however, Mexico’s energy security is edging closer to that of OECD countries, meaning that Mexico’s comparative advantage in energy security is slowly shrinking.

Mexico is the world’s seventh largest oil producer, and also a major oil exporter. While production levels had been declining, they have begun to rise again in recent months. Mexico also has large reserves of natural gas, but these have not been developed quickly enough to prevent imports of natural gas from rising sharply in recent years as demand for natural gas outstrips domestic supply.

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Environmental news briefs relating to Mexico

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Apr 022013
 

This post describes several newsworthy developments relating to Mexico’s natural environment.

Financing to fight deforestation

The Inter-American Development Bank is giving Mexico $15 million in financial and technical assistance to support climate change mitigation efforts. The program will help communities and ejidos finance low carbon projects in forest landscapes in five states, all of which have high levels of net forest loss: Oaxaca, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Jalisco and Campeche.

The program includes a $10 million loan for financing projects that must reconcile economic profit for the communities and generate environmental benefits through reducing the pressure on forests and promoting enhancement of carbon stocks. In addition, a $5 million grant will provide financial and technical assistance to support the viability of individual projects, by strengthening technical, financial and management skills.

The IDB says that the program is a pilot project that will allow lessons to be learned for its replication in other key geographic areas in Mexico. It should demonstrate a viable business model that promotes the reduction of deforestation and degradation while increasing economic returns. [based on an IDB press release]

Mexican company converts avocado seeds into biodegradable plastic

A Mexican company called Biofase has developed a way to turn avocado pits into 100% biodegradable plastic resins. Avocado pits are normally discarded as waste. Biofase will collect some of the estimated 30,000 metric tons of avocado pits discarded each month for processing. The company has patented the technology and is looking for additional raw material containing some of the same chemicals as avocados.

Huichol Indians oppose peyote conservation measure

A presidential decree signed last November prohibits the harvesting of the hallucinogenic peyote cactus from two protected areas in the state of San Luis Potosí. The decree has met fierce opposition from the indigenous Huichol (Wixarika) people, for whom the peyote is a sacred plant. The Huichol undertake a lengthy pilgrimage each year to gather peyote for subsequent use in their ceremonies.

The restriction on peyote harvesting is the latest in a long line of problems faced by the Huichol including the incursion by a large number of mining companies onto traditional territory. The Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta has demanded that the government guarantee the Huichol’s right to pick peyote, and called for the cancellation of 79 mining concessions (most of them to Canadian companies) that impinge on their sacred land. Critics claim that mining is having a devastating impact on the local environment, especially because the companies involved are using large quantities of highly toxic cyanide.

Expand the port or protect the coral reef?

In Avalan destruir arrecifes para ampliar puerto de Veracruz published in Mexico City daily La Jornada, Luz María Rivera describes how one of the final acts of the previous administration was to redraw the boundaries of the protected area of coral reef off the coast of Veracruz state. The new boundaries have reduced the protected offshore area near the cities of Veracruz, Boca del Río and Alvarado by about 1200 hectares (3000 acres). The redrawing of the protected area is to enable the expansion of the port of Veracruz, one of the country’s largest, and almost double its capacity. Government officials claimed that the area affected was already “damaged” and that the reef system was 98% or 99% “dead”.

Government-NGO accord to protect Mexican whale sanctuary

The Mexican government has signed an accord with the NGO Pronatura Noroeste to improve the protection of Laguna San Ignacio, the Pacific coastal lagoon which is a major breeding ground for gray whales. The lagoon has 400 kilometers (250 miles) of coastline, bounded by wetlands and mangroves, and is part of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve in the northern part of the state of Baja California Sur. The accord calls for joint development of plans for protection, monitoring and tracking the whales and other species that inhabit the lagoon, as well as  establishing protocols for resolving any eventual environmental contingencies.

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Popocatapetl Volcano and Colima Volcano continue to erupt

 Mexico's geography in the Press, Updates to Geo-Mexico  Comments Off on Popocatapetl Volcano and Colima Volcano continue to erupt
Mar 302013
 

In our series of brief updates on topics featured in previous Geo-Mexico posts, we look this week at the continuing eruption of two major volcanoes: Popocatapetl Volcano (between Mexico City and Puebla) and Colima Volcano (on the Jalisco-Colima state border in western Mexico).

Popocatepetl, 30 July 2012

Popocatepetl, 30 July 2012

Since our previous post, about a year ago, entitled Alert level rises as Popocatepetl volcano starts to erupt, Popocatapetl Volcano (photo) has continued to be active, with up to 250 activity events a day. The alert level has been reduced slightly to Yellow Phase 2, the fourth highest level. This level indicates intermediate scale explosive activity and possible expulsion of lava, explosions of increasing intensity and wind-blown ash falling on nearby villages. The volcano is monitored daily, and updates from CENAPRED  (in Spanish and English) are issued every 24 hours.

The report issued on 27 March is typical of recent months. In the previous 24 hours, there were 83 low intensity events with emissions of gas, water vapor and ash. The two largest events sent material rising 1000 meters and 600 meters into the atmosphere respectively, before the wind blew the material north eastwards (away from Mexico City).

Colima Volcano

In January 2013, we reported how Colima Volcano erupts, destroying lava dome first created in 2007. The volcano has continued to erupt in the ten weeks since then. The experts monitoring the volcano have reported up to 200 eruptive events a day, with numerous minor emissions of lava. Local villagers have been asked to remain on alert, though the experts are not yet calling for any villages to be evacuated.

The image below (source: Nasa Earth Observatory) shows Colima Volcano in 2010, part way into its current eruptive phase which is expected to last several years. The image shows the evidence at that time of four different types of volcanic activity:

  • lava dome growth
  • explosive eruptions
  • flank collapse
  • lava flows.

(Note that the 2013 eruptions have significantly altered the top of the volcano since this image was taken).

Nasa Earth Observatory)

Colima Volcano in 2010 (Nasa Earth Observatory)

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