Tropentag, September 10 - 12, 2025, Bonn "Reconciling land system changes with planetary health"

Rural women's capacities facing water overexploitation and soil erosion at the independence watershed in Guanajuato, Mexico

Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Development Studies, Mexico

Abstract

The Independence Watershed (I.W.) (Cuenca de la Independencia) is located in northern Guanajuato, Mexico. Conformed by 7 municipalities representing approximately 650,000 inhabitants, its territory extension is 7000 km². All I.W. aquifers are overexploited by the agribusiness of exportation with no chance of water infiltration due to the vegetable production dynamics and to the actual policies based on the reform of the 27^th constitutional article about “ejido” rights in 1992, on the Water Law created in 1992 and on the arrival of NAFTA (now USMCA) in 1994.

Guanajuato is the second state in Mexico where more men from rural areas migrate to the United States due to the lack of fair labour opportunities and to the depreciation of work in the countryside; consequently, family disintegration and land abandonment are constant. Therefore, the rural territory of Guanajuato has been taken over by agribusiness and auto parts companies. Nevertheless, the territory has been mainly defended by rural women who notice the environmental and health consequences on both ecosystems and inhabitants.

This proposal intends to show what the political, educational and know-how capacities that women in rural communities have had to develop, and to show what they have had to face, and finally what this means nowadays for socio-environmental health and quality of life in rural Mexico.

Among the consequences they face are soil erosion, eutrophication, aquifer overexploitation, and lack of water access or access to water with high levels of fluoride (F) and arsenic (As) 15 times beyond WHO standards, which have caused damage to health (skeletal fluorosis and cancer), especially among children.

Some implemented strategies are rainwater harvesting, beekeeping, backyard farming, agroecology as knowledge that has allowed not only to re-signify the territory, but also to reforest it, combat soil erosion, drive food security and care for plant, animal and human life. Among the developed capacities are political training, assemblies, water-soil committees, lobbying and alliance creation.

This proposal's aim is to reveal that rural women in northern Guanajuato can create scenarios for a dignified life, while they preserve nature, restore the planet's cycles, impose water security and policy transformation.

Keywords: Agroforestry, Agroindustry, Knowledge development, marginalisation, Political training

Contact Address: Gabriela Morales Aguilar, Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Development Studies, Herradura no. 47 colonia aurora, 37715 San miguel de allende, Mexico, e-mail: gmasanmiguelgmail.com