The cracks in the fight for water in Cherán, the municipality that took up arms against the loggers

For Cherán, the municipality of Michoacán (Mexico) that 13 years ago took up arms to expel mafias and forestry workers from its lands, the defense of nature and water is a matter of honor, a battle of life or death .

But, more than a decade after becoming a symbol of the defense of its resources and its territory, overconfidence has shaken one of its main achievements: the largest rainwater collector in Latin America that they built has been spoiled.

An hour and a half from the capital of Michoacán, Cherán celebrates the new Purépecha year every February.

Stalin Ramos Tapia, activist and legal advisor of the Mayor Council, member of neighborhood 4, proudly explains that his community knows what it is like to lack water, and that is why they built the giant 20,000 square meter reservoir on Kukundicata Hill (the equivalent of a standard football stadium) that started in 2016 with exemplary participation from the people of Cherana.

Known by some as Samuel, the pseudonym he used within the framework of the student movement in 2006 and with which he demanded justice after the murder of his brother, Mariano Ramos Tapia, during the uprising, this 46-year-old man remembers that in the 70s, When he was a child, he bathed every eight days and each week they gave three 19-liter cans of water per family.

“We said: 'Sunday it's bath time.

But today I can do it every day,” he says.

Stalin Ramos Tapia in Uruapan.ALICIA VERA

Now, during the year he travels to Morelia and other areas inside and outside the country to promote the Cherán uprising, when the municipality adopted self-government and expelled criminals, parties and police from its territory;

and present their community as a reference in the care of forests and water.

For him, the uprising that gave them worldwide fame has been worth it, not only because of the recovery of the forest, but because people are more aware of the value of their ecosystem and have reforested almost everything that the loggers had destroyed, which in many cases cases they deforested to establish avocado plantations that require a lot of water.

“The collector does not have water”

But Cherán's story is not perfect, as Stalin's father, Mariano Ramos, also a member of the Mayor Council, warns when he receives him in the town after a trip by announcing: "The collector does not have water."

One of the main achievements of Cherán's self-government, the enormous pot that was capable of capturing up to 20 million liters of water and that supplied the town, is not in operation due to lack of maintenance and surveillance.

“What is not used goes to waste,” warns engineer Miguel Ángel Córdova Rodríguez, in charge of the original project and who today is also in charge of the rehabilitation.

As he explains, the problem was that weeds began to grow around the collector that were not cleaned, trees fell and part of the mesh that covered the infrastructure and prevented water from infiltrating broke.

In addition, bottles and crystals were found inside that caused cracks in the pot.

“Apparently there was vandalism because the geomembrane doesn't break like that,” he says.

A break in the geomembrane of the rainwater collector. ALICIA VERA

The collector was inspired by other similar ones, such as one in the crater of a volcano in the Canary Islands, and another in San Diego, California, which is used for fire contingencies.

With the water they collected in Cherán, the community had organized to distribute it to public buildings, schools and homes and had created a purification plant that distributes inexpensive jugs to up to 800 families in the town.

Since it broke down, that factory has been using spring water to produce and maintain economic activity.

“They started charging, but not reinvesting in operation and maintenance,” laments Córdova Rodríguez.

The Cherán water purification plant.ALICIA VERA

Jugs are filled inside the plant. ALICIA VERA

According to the operation manual of the Cherán rainwater collector, published by the Government, this system was installed to supply purified water packaged in jugs, and to have an economic model that allows the community to ensure an income for its maintenance. .

Currently, the jug is sold for 9 pesos (0.50 dollars) while the commercial ones range between 40 and 50, giving savings to families;

but not the profit expected for the maintenance and payment of the electrical energy generated by the conventional use of the wells.

Neither the current Cherán administration nor the engineer know exactly when the collector stopped working.

In 2017, Córdova Rodríguez was called to Cherán for other projects and “righting the ship a little.”

At that time, it continued working although changes were made to one of the pipes that was no longer serving.

“In the third administration it was half abandoned and, like every government, they blamed those from before, and where was the ball?

Who knows,” he says.

The community has not been in a hurry to rehabilitate it, since in recent years they have not suffered water shortages;

but, now, the national and global water crisis has pushed them to ask for help.

“Cherán is not an island”

After a winding dirt road, Mariano Ramos and Leonel Flores, two of the 12 people from Cherana who make up the outgoing Mayor Council, show on the Kukundicata hill that the collector “is empty, it is broken.”

The hope of the community members is that the geomembrane can be patched with funds from the Government of Michoacán, chaired by Morenista Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, who upon taking office in 2021 promised to fix it.

One of the wells of the self-governed community. ALICIA VERA

Córdova Rodríguez claims to have delivered the rehabilitation project to the State authorities in January.

“The ball is in their court,” he says.

And the municipality is waiting to receive the funds, between 2 and 3 million pesos (between 117,000 and 176,000 dollars), before the change of administration and before the May rains begin.

For the engineer, Cherán is a success story in terms of the concept and what can be done, but above all, it is a lesson that what is not operated, cared for and maintained properly, deteriorates.

Enedino Santaclara Madrigal, member of the Mayor Council in the second administration (2015-2018), says that as a child he had the luxury of bathing in the ravines, but the population grew and in 1975 there was a tremendous shortage of water.

Then, the first of the two wells in Cherán, which still works, was drilled.

The town of Cherán, in the State of Michoacán.ALICIA VERA

For his part, Héctor Durán, a member of the first Mayor Council, boasts that the communal collector and purifier were the main achievement of that administration.

But, he regrets, his successors “did not give him importance or priority, although it is still a necessity, since he would maintain the Cherán hospital for a year.”

His partner, José Trinidad, says that in Cherán the land is arid and porous, so water is not retained.

For Córdova Rodríguez, if the water infiltrates it means that it goes to the aquifer, if it goes to the aquifer it goes to the springs.

That's why they have the wells they have.

“As long as they maintain the forests as they do, they will guarantee their rains, but in quotes because they are also subject to climate change.

Cherán is not an island,” he states.

In Cherán, place of witches in Purépecha, there are many traditional doctors, and it is prohibited to plant avocado because it is one of the varieties that destroys water.

The relationship of the indigenous people with the trees is that of brothers, they have to ask the forest for permission to give them its wood or any plant, but if the forest runs out: “where are we going to look for our medicine?”, he told Stalin. his grandmother, who, as legal advisor to the Mayor Council, inherited and practices ancestral knowledge of medicine.