Mexican court order suspends flooding of Temacapulin

If built to the intended height of 105 meters, the Zapotillo dam will flood the towns of Temacapulin, Palmarejo and Acasic.

A district court in western Mexico has suspended the federal government’s controversial plans to flood the town of Temacapulín by raising the height of a nearby dam.

The August 14 ruling prohibited Mexico’s National Water Commission (Conagua) from raising the Zapotillo dam from 80 to 105 meters because this would leave Temacapulín and the smaller villages of Palmarejo and Acasic beneath the banks of the Rio Verde.

Conagua has vowed to respect the ruling but said it remains confident that any legal obstacles will be overcome and that the dam will still be built to the original specification of 105 meters.

Raising the dam to this height would create a reservoir of 900 million cubic meters. Around 80 percent of this water would used to supply the nearby city of Leon, with the remainder split between Guadalajara and the Los Altos de Jalisco farming region.

Local resistance

Located in the western state of Jalisco, Temacapulín is home to around 500 inhabitants, many of them indigenous Mexicans.

In order to press ahead with the project, the federal government wants to relocate displaced residents to Nuevo Temacapulín, a new settlement where it has built more than 30 homes.

Local residents have campaigned fiercely to save their communities.

But the government plans have been met with fierce resistance. Many locals have complained that their human riots are being violated because they are being forced to leave their homes and lose their jobs…

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