MEXICO CITY — Mexican President, Felipe Calderón, has inaugurated the Aqueduct II infiernillo in the city of Querétaro. The system, which extends over 122.9 kilometres, will enable the city and the metropolitan area to avail of an supply of 47.3 million cubic metres (m3) of water from surface springs.

By increasing the water supply and distribution, the project, with a budget of over 2.85 billion pesos, will reduce the over-use of the Queretaro aquifer, which has to support an annual extraction of 110 million m3, which is 57% more than the 70 million m3 that is replaced annually.

The project has a pressure conduction capacity of 2.25 cubic metres per second (m3/sec) and includes a diversion dam with a maximum storage level of 843,000 cubic metres of water.

The aqueduct will transport the water from the El Infiernillo sources, which are located at the state boundaries of Queretaro and Hidalgo, to a purification plant with a capacity of 1,500 litres per second, according to a release issued by the National Water Commission (Conagua).

With this new element of infrastructure, 40 of the 83 wells that currently supply the region will be decommissioned. Thus, Aqueduct II will not only cover the shortfall in the demand for hydro resources, but will also permit an additional replenishment of 7 million m3 per annum and in this way stabilize the aquifer which has been sinking by 3 metres each year.

During the opening ceremony, Conagua Director General Luis Luerge Tamargo, emphasised that this is the first of a number of sustainable projects with a long-term vision that are being built in Mexico to ensure the distribution of water of sufficient quality and in sufficient quantity, while at the same time contributing to the conservation of water resources.