Water use analysis in the cuauhtemoc aquifer, Chihuahua, Mexico

Abstract

Chihuahua is an arid state that have few sources of surface water and uses mainly underground water for irrigation. The volume extracted of these sources has an increasing tendency. The Cuauhtémoc aquifer was overexploited for several decades mainly for the water supply for irrigation and usually the extraction of water volume is much greater than the recharge, which has generated overexploitation with wide abatements of the static levels. In the irrigated areas, it has not been possible to quantify regularly the variation of the irrigated area as well the volume of water used. The estimation of the water volume used for irrigation has been based in the irrigated areas. For 2012, 1,317 irrigated units were located, supplied by 1,818 water exploitations, covering a physical area of 55,555 hectares, where 92% of the water used is underground, also, more than 62,000 hectares are rain-fed agriculture. The cultivated area is concentrated in two crops: corn (87.0%) and apple (11.9%). However, by quantifying the areas of standing crops carried out for the years 2015 and 2016, it is show that the agriculture has grown outside the areas defined in 2012, which implies a greater consumption of groundwater.