Siembra de peces en Presa Allende, foto ilustrativa

There was great upheaval by the damage that was “almost” done in the Cerro de las Tres Cruces ceremonial and archaeological site by SAPASMA, with its proposal to build an underground tank that would store up to 59,000 liters of water.

In October, devotees of the Holy Cross mobilized to prevent machines from destroying the ceremonial area, about five meters around, maintaining that it was donated “by oral tradition” many years ago to pay tribute to Santo Madero.

The controversy is not recent; it stems from a 2018 mayoral campaign promise to supply water to the city for the next 30 years, which included possibly building a new Water Treatment Plant next to the current one in the Ignacio Allende Dam, and the construction of a filtration plant for potable water. But it is now known that water from the dam does not belong to the city but to the seventh state district, meaning the city has no claim to the water, and that filtering potable water would be more expensive than the aquifer project. 

The aquifer project in progress includes drilling seven wells on the banks of Presa Allende in the communities of San Marcos, San Marquitos, Flores de Begoña, and the lower part of Los Frailes. These will be connected through a hydraulic network that will bring the water to an underground warehouse, to be built in Cerro de las Tres Cruces. The construction zone is in the process of approval by federal authorities. The water will flow from the tank to the upper and lower parts of San Miguel. It will allow 30 percent of the wells operated by SAPASMA (21 are working) to refill. This information was all detailed in the town hall session on Nov. 9, a special virtual session where the director of the SAPASMA, Francisco Jiménez, and Abelardo Quero of Urban Development, were summoned by opposition councilors to respond to a series of questions.

At the meeting it was said by the local authorities that work on the tank (not the drilling of the wells) is on hold until the construction space is determined. The owner of Cerro de las Tres Cruces stated that he will donate the ceremonial space to the devotees, and a second landowner will donate an area of ​​about three thousand square meters to INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) so that in the future the area can be restored and open to the public.

At the session, Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal indicated that an adjacent wastewater treatment plant will also be built at the Allende dam. This water will not be processed to be potable, as promised in the mayoral campaign. For this reason Villarreal indicated, “If we asked the residents of San Miguel if they prefer to have potable water from the Allende dam or from a well, certainly for all, including me, the answer would be the second [option].” The aquifer project investment would be 380 million pesos.