{"id":354659,"date":"2010-02-23T12:54:31","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T17:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.circleofblue.org\/waternews\/?p=12097"},"modified":"2010-02-23T12:54:31","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T17:54:31","slug":"map-and-statistics-%e2%80%93-divining-destiny-water-challenges-in-mexico%e2%80%99s-tehuacan-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/354659","title":{"rendered":"Map and Statistics \u2013 Divining Destiny: Water Challenges in Mexico\u2019s Tehuac\u00e1n Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n

“A Place of Stones” – About Mexico’s Tehuac\u00e1n Valley<\/h1>\n

Tehuac\u00e1n, meaning \u2018Place of Stones\u2019 in the native language of Nahuatl, is a centuries old city that lies in the Mexican state of Puebla, roughly 150 miles southeast of Mexico City. As much as 9,000 years ago nomadic people settled in the valley of Tehuac\u00e1n, due in large part to the fertile soil and abundant supply of water. Around 4000 BC, the people of Tehuac\u00e1n began cultivating many staple crops and, according to Paleo-botanist Richard Mcneish, were the very first to cultivate corn (maize).<\/p>\n

\n
THE TEHUACAN VALLEY<\/strong><\/div>\n
LOCATION
\n150km (90 miles) southeast of Mexico City<\/div>\n
SIZE
\n9000 sq km (3500 sq mi)<\/div>\n
PRECIPITATION
\n8-19 inches average annual rainfall<\/div>\n
FIRST POPULATED
\n7000 BC<\/div>\n
NAME ORIGIN
\n“Tehuac\u00e1n” translates to “Place of the Gods” or “Place of Stones”<\/div>\n
See story locations in Google Earth<\/a><\/div>\n
Get Google Earth<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This wide, cactus covered valley is bordered to the west by the mountains of the Sierra de Zapotitl\u00e1n and to the east by the Sierra Negra. In contrast to many other regions of Mexico, the climate of the Tehuac\u00e1n valley is semiarid. Scott Whiteford in his book entitled The Keepers of Water and Earth, writes that creative methods of water collection, as a result, have been devised to keep up with agricultural demands. In this climate, \u2018where evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation throughout the entire year and the rainfall is limited and unpredictable, agriculture has to be supported by irrigation.\u2019 As a result a complex system of canals and reservoirs have been created over thousands of years to provide sufficient water for year-round irrigation and to define borders between individual properties.<\/p>\n

Some of the irrigation water, Whiteford explains, has come from springs, known as manantiales, which flow out to the valley floor. The second source of irrigation water comes from a series of streams, called barrancas, which come to life after a rain. Gene Wilken, a resource management surveyor, concludes that the Tehuac\u00e1n valley has \u2018undoubtedly the most extensive and complex runoff management system in Middle America.\u2019<\/p>\n

The third and most important source of water comes from underground tunnels known as galerias filtrantes, which use gravity to guide water from higher elevations to the valley floor. The fourth and most controversial source of water comes from deep wells, called pozos profundos, have been created through modern technology. They are extremely expensive and beyond the means of most farmers. There is great concern, too, that these wells will lower the water table and render many of the galerias less productive.<\/p>\n

Though the Tehuac\u00e1n valley supports numerous types of commerce, agriculture still dominates the economy. Much of the agriculture still utilizes centuries old techniques, but over the last four decades the number of large and sophisticated agribusinesses specializing in raising vast numbers of chickens, pigs, cattle and other produce, has increased substantially. These businesses, not surprisingly, have put further stress on the underground water reserves.<\/p>\n

Additionally, high quality mineral springs have been tapped for decades for large scale bottling. These mineral springs are so well known that people throughout Mexico still ask for a \u2018Tehuac\u00e1n\u2019 when ordering a bottle of water. There are those who believe, too, that these waters possess curative qualities.<\/p>\n

In the nineties, hundreds of Maquiladoras, or textile factories, were created principally for the manufacture of blue Jeans for the world market. At its height, according to Mart\u2019n Amaru Barrios Hern\u00e1ndez, a member of the Comision de Derechos Humanos y Laborales del Valle de Tehuac\u00e1n, the city and surrounding areas were home to over 700 maquiladoras, which together, created an environmental nightmare. Each factory required huge amounts of underground water, dyes and chemicals to treat these jeans. Though many of these factories have since closed and moved to other countries where labor and taxes are even cheaper, the water that passes though parts of the town has a bluish tint and is full of chemicals such as potassium used for \u2018stone-washing\u2019 the jeans. Combined with deforestation and overgrazing, today Tehuac\u00e1n is one of the driest regions of Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A Place of Stones” – About Mexico’s Tehuac\u00e1n Valley Tehuac\u00e1n, meaning \u2018Place of Stones\u2019 in the native language of Nahuatl, is a centuries old city that lies in the Mexican state of Puebla, roughly 150 miles southeast of Mexico City. As much as 9,000 years ago nomadic people settled in the valley of Tehuac\u00e1n, due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}