'Doomed to stay': The dying villages of Mexico's Lake Cuitzeo
As Mexico’s reservoirs run dry, the fishermen, farmers and ranchers stuck on the drying lake beds wonder how they will survive.
Ranchero Cornelio with one of his young calves; as his cattle graze he takes a rest on one of the few trees in the desert landscape that once was Lake Cuitzeo [Jules Emile/Al Jazeera]
By Arnaud De Decker and Jules Emile
25 Jul 2021
Fifty-two-year-old Augustin Rodriguez stands on the withered grass of his front yard and opens the tap. Water slowly drips from the garden hose the fisherman’s family uses for their daily needs. There is just enough to fill the cooking pot; the rest of the water is for the three goats that are cooped up nearby, next to the makeshift open-air kitchen.
The colourful buildings of San Nicolás Cuiritzeo in Mexico have seen better days. Like the water that has disappeared from the lake that neighbours the village, many of its inhabitants have left to seek a more prosperous life elsewhere. Once a healthy mix of farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, today only about 350 remain.
Augustin shrugs. “We have to be thrifty. The lake has been empty for months. We have to make do with some groundwater that we get from a well a little further away, but that too is almost empty. If it doesn’t rain in the next few days or weeks, we’re in for a big problem,” he says.
His family sits outside, in the shade provided by a skinny tree. Defeated, he steps towards them and wearily sits down on a dusty angular stone, taking a sip from his lukewarm beer. “My brothers and I have been out of work for months. We can’t hold out much longer,” he says.
More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/7/25/doomed-to-stay-the-dying-villages-of-mexicos-lake-cuitzeo
As it once was:
