The incomfortable story of the dams in Sinaloa, Mexico. Regional asymmetries and necessary inexperiences

asimetrías regionales e inexperiencias necesarias

Abstract

The construction of dams in the state of Sinaloa, in the northwest of the country, is one of the most complicated in Mexico, since it is due to a hydro-agricultural policy promoted since the first half of the previous century, and the result of which places the state as the main producer of grains and vegetables.

The agricultural vocation of the state, driven by the construction of large dams during the last eighty years, means that the agri-food activity cannot be sustained without a permanent and safe supply of water, and that is why the construction of dams is prioritized. Sinaloa has twelve large dams, one more under construction, two executive projects ready to be applied and generate two more reservoirs, as well as several dozen complementary hydraulic works, such as smaller dams, and irrigation canals.

Of the twelve dams installed, nine required the displacement of populations. The imposition of the projects and the conditions of the relocation and of the habitability in the new towns were to the detriment of the affected families, who number more than four thousand.

The present work is part of the results of an extensive and prolonged ethnographic investigation, where some of the arbitrariness of each displacement or the vicissitudes of adaptation to the new peoples are illustrated, in an attempt to rescue the historical memory of the 198 flooded towns, and whose memory may be lost because there are no official records of how many localities were flooded, how many families were displaced, and even how many new towns were created for those families.