The Taco Times: January 2009

Jiggling a piece of shattered mirror, Don Ambrosio, sent a shaft of sunlight down a 90 foot well. The beam scanned the well’s cement wall until Don Ambrosio rested it upon a pump, suspended just a few feet above the diminishing water level. “I’ll lose another five feet of water before the rains resume in May. But there’ll be enough to get me through the dry season,” he explained.

Don Ambrosio forms part of the water defense committee of San Antonino (La Coordinadora de los Pueblos Unidos por la Defensa del Agua), a village just outside the market town of Ocotlan in Oaxaca, Mexico. This day, the water committee met in a corrugated tin shack at the edge of a field. A hose lay on the ground, trickling water into the furrows; lettuce appeared ready for harvest. A sick child dozed in a caned chair; her parents set her legs across a tomato crate to lay her horizontal.

The committee had convened an emergency session to visit a San Antonino neighbor who, under pressure from the CNA – Mexico’s water commission - had installed a water meter on his well. The water committee had reached a previous agreement with the CNA to not install water meters until a pending lawsuit is resolved. The lawsuit, in which the San Antonino farmers are plantiffs along with other farmers in the Ocotlan valley, demands that the CNA come up with a sustainable water use plan and until it does so, water meters will not be installed. The committee sought to urge their neighbor to disconnect the water meter.

In 1968, the CNA declared a moratorium on new concessions for water exploitation. That was the theory. In practice, they doled out concessions to a soda bottling plant, housing developers and a mine. And at the same time, they clamped down on small farmer water use for vegetable production by metering wells and did nothing to restore the withering watershed.

“We know how to restore water levels in the valley,” Don Ambrosio explained. “We’ve told the CNA that if they want to manage water effectively in the valley, they need to do something to conserve and rebuild underground water. We’ll refuse meters on our wells until they work with us for real solutions.”

One technique that has worked quite well for the water defense committee has been to dig shallow filtration shafts near to the wells. The shafts sit in natural depressions where run-off collects. They are dug out and filled with stones. At the bottom of the shaft a pipe connects to the well. The water filters down, passes through the pipe and recharges the well.

“It’s a simple, cheap technique that brings back up the water level in our wells. We’re doing it at our own expense, with our own labor,” Carmen explained. “This year we hope to draw on some funding from our municipal budget for this water restoration work.”

Carmen, in addition to being director of AJWS’ partner organization, Flor y Canto, is also a member of San Antonino’s “comité de vigilancia” an oversight committee that shadows the municipal administration

“We manage our own municipality through use and custom law,” said Carmen. “Water is our principal concern here. Our authorities tend to be farmers, practical people that want to solve problems to help families get by.” San Antonino is one of Oaxaca’s 418 municipalities (out of 570) that are governed by indigenous use and custom law through which decisions are made by community assembly – in contrast to the jockeying of political parties. Municipal governments managed by use and custom law were recognized by the state after a hard won political battle.

There is much pride in these indigenous traditions. In fact, while awaiting the return of the neighbor – who appeared not to want to talk to the water defense committee about why he caved in and installed a water meter – Don Ambrosio’s wife said, “the Mexican Revolution liberated us but it didn’t rescue our culture. How wonderful it would be if we all still spoke our thousands of original languages. It wouldn’t be so easy for outsiders to manipulate us if they had to learn our languages first.”

“The reform of article 27 really hurt us,” another committee member said. To “lubricate” land markets in advance of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), communal lands were permitted to be parcelized and sold off. “Now only the top 50 centimeters of the soil are ours, the rest belongs to the nation. But who makes up the nation?”

The water defense committee is working to get the whole valley involved in their efforts. “We’ve looked at the situation of water in the Ocotlan valley. What’s most important is that we build back up the strength of our springs. How can it be that the state allows a mine to operate in the valley, that besides from contamination, uses huge quantities in its operation? With the help of a local priest, we’ve managed to get the mine to suspend operations – at least for the time being.”

The water defense committee dedicates itself to a public education and communications campaign – getting the word out in every way that they can. They create posters, radio spots, conduct press conferences and if the water commission and elected representatives still don’t feel the pressure, they threaten to blockade the highway. With Christmas just around the corner and lots of food to cook, they were hoping not to have to take that measure.

“San Antonino is key,” said a water defense committee member. “The government knows that. We’re organized. If we win here in changing how the CNA does its business, other communities will follow in our footsteps. If the government wins here, the water movement will be weakened. We can’t wait for another study – we will have died of thirst before they finish. We need the CNA to follow our example and implement real solutions to restore and conserve our water.”

Another committee member suggested, “Let’s ring the church bells just before the next meeting. A lot more people will come.”