Climate change is no longer a distant concern; it’s here, and it’s affecting all of us. Mexico is seeing scorching heat waves and dry spells followed by sudden downpours and floods. This crazy weather isn’t just an inconvenience: it’s wreaking havoc on agriculture and threatening the water and food supplies.
San Miguel de Allende’s water crisis
The region of San Miguel de Allende has always relied on its short rainy season for most of its water. However, climate change is putting everyone at risk, while rural farming communities feel the highest impact.
It’s hard to imagine, but the arid landscape around San Miguel de Allende was once flourishing with forests that attracted rain and cooled the land. These forests were a vital part of the Laja River watershed, playing a key role in replenishing aquifers and maintaining steady rainfall.
Over time, however, overdevelopment, drought and erosion have destroyed much of this tree cover. Without the cooling effect of the forests, the exposed land absorbs heat, disrupts rainfall patterns and becomes even drier, a destructive cycle known as the “watershed death spiral.”
Abandoned reservoirs and overexploited wells
Another key factor contributing to the region’s current water crisis is the shift in how water is sourced. Rural farming communities once depended on rainwater reservoirs to endure the long dry season. However, with the arrival of electricity in the late 20th century, communities began drilling deep wells, which quickly became their main water source. As a result, rainwater reservoirs were abandoned and left to deteriorate.
Large-scale agribusiness has severely overexploited deep wells, depleting aquifers faster than they can replenish. As a result, many wells have already run dry, and the remaining water is often polluted with toxic levels of arsenic and fluoride. This contamination poses serious health risks and further exacerbates the region’s water crisis.
Tikkun Eco Center and Agua Para la Vida
Non-profit Tikkun Eco Center is stepping in to tackle this crisis. Through its Agua Para la Vida project, the Tikkun team focuses on restoring and reforesting water reservoirs to improve environmental and community health.
In 2022, Tikkun set out to restore the historic reservoir in the San Miguel neighborhood of San José de Gracia, a resource that had served four villages for over 200 years. Once a vital water source, the reservoir had deteriorated into little more than a mud flat after years of neglect. When the local aquifer could no longer meet the community’s needs, villagers were forced to ration water, receiving only two hours of well water per week per family, barely enough for personal use, let alone farming or livestock.
Breathing life back into the land
In just one month, Agua Para la Vida removed over 1,400 truckloads of silt and soil from the San José reservoir. Later, they raised the reservoir’s edges, reinforced the dam and installed water management systems. Thanks to these efforts, the San Jose de Gracia reservoir is now capable of holding 45 million liters of water.
The excavated soil didn’t go to waste: it became the foundation for reforestation. Tikkun donated over 100 native tree saplings and hundreds of magueys, while the San Miguel Municipal Ecology Department (DMAS) contributed an additional 1,000 native trees and cacti that were all planted by volunteers. When the rains came, the reservoir filled and Tikkun stocked it with tilapia from their own ponds.
A global movement for ecological restoration
Tikkun Eco Center’s work is part of a global movement to heal degraded ecosystems. Restoring local forests and promoting sustainable agricultural systems is essential for reversing the damage caused by deforestation and desertification. Around the world, communities facing similar challenges have achieved remarkable success.
In Asia, Africa and Australia, reforestation efforts and sustainable water practices have turned barren landscapes into thriving ecosystems. These projects bring back green spaces and improve food security, water availability and local economies, offering hope and inspiration for regions like San Miguel de Allende.
The recipe for healthy ecosystems
Tikkun Eco Center specializes in restoring reservoirs and laying the foundation for regenerative agriculture. Their approach includes keeping fields green year-round with cover crops and intercropping trees. Permaculture methods guide their work, transforming fields into food forests that blend trees with deep-rooted grasses to create a cooler, more biodiverse ecosystem. This approach captures carbon, provides habitats for bees and beneficial insects, restores eroded soils and improves rainwater absorption.
Scaling up the impact
Tikkun Eco Center continues to expand its impact by partnering with experts and securing funding for vital projects. With support from the Rio Arronte Fund for Natural Resources and the San Miguel Community Foundation, Tikkun has teamed up with local water-focused NGO Caminos de Agua and Querétaro-based Inana to restore the community reservoir of Los Torres, another San Miguel neighborhood.
This work is just the beginning. The region has hundreds of abandoned reservoirs. Scaling up these efforts could transform the area. Tikkun’s holistic model of ecological repair has shown what’s possible. Still, more action and support are needed to expand the scope and reach of these efforts.
Visit TikkunSanMiguel.mx to learn more about how you can help.
Sandra Gancz Kahan is a Mexican writer and translator based in San Miguel de Allende who specializes in mental health and humanitarian aid. She believes in the power of language to foster compassion and understanding across cultures. She can be reached at: [email protected]
