An Aquatic Paradise in Mexico, Pushed to the Edge of Extinction

XOCHIMILCO, Mexico — With their gray-green waters and blue herons, the canals and island farms of Xochimilco in southern Mexico City are all that remain of the extensive network of shimmering waterways that so awed Spanish invaders when they arrived here 500 years ago.

But the fragility of this remnant of pre-Columbian life was revealed last month, when a 20-feet-deep hole opened in the canal bed, draining water and alarming hundreds of tour boat operators and farmers who depend on the waterways for a living.

The hole intensified a simmering conflict over nearby wells, which suck water from Xochimilco’s soil and pump it to other parts of Mexico City. It also revived worries about a process of decline, caused by pollution, urban encroachment and subsidence, that residents and experts fear may destroy the canals in a matter of years.

“This is a warning,” said Sergio Raúl Rodríguez Elizarrarás, a geologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “We are driving the canals towards their extinction.”Continue reading the main story

Xochimilco (pronounced sochi-MILK-o), a municipality on the southeastern tip of Mexico City, is home to more than 6,000 acres of protected wetlands, hemmed in by dense streets. Here, farmers grow rosemary, corn and chard on chinampas, islands formed using a technique dating from the Aztecs from willow trees, lilies and mud.Continue reading the main story.

The Embarcadero Cuemanco with its trajineras — long, flat boats that ferry tourists on the canals of Xochimilco. The municipality at Mexico City’s edge holds more than 6,000 acres of protected wetlands.CreditAdriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

Residents ply the area’s 100 or so miles of canals in canoes, much as they have for centuries. On weekends, thousands of tourists picnic and party on brightly painted barges, or trajineras.

“This is the last thread that connects us to our pre-Hispanic past,” Ricardo Munguía, an artist and tour guide, said recently while chugging through the dawn mist in a motorboat. As he slid past a field of broken corn stalks, a pelican swooped by and skidded on the water, slowing itself with its wide wings.

“It would be heartbreaking to lose this,” Mr. Munguía said.

As bucolic as the canals appear, intense exploitation of the area’s aquifers over the last 50 years has depleted springs, prompting the authorities to replenish the waterways from a nearby sewage treatment plant.

As the earth dries out, it sinks, cracking buildings and forming sudden craters like the one that appeared on Jan. 24, 50 yards from a barge mooring.
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