Marabasco River Overflows

These photos were taken in the early hours of Sunday September 8, showing the results of the rains Saturday night. The Marabasco river overflowed in the agricultural valley Cihuatlán affecting banana plantations and vegetables. Also in the city of Cihuatlan, tons of sand and mud again covered the main avenues, such as the Alvaro Obregon and Aquiles Serdan.  An estimated 6-10 inches of rain fell in 12 hours effecting much of the Cihuatlan municipality.

El Rebalse was flooded which is located a few kilometers from the county seat of Cihuatlán and close to the river. Neighbors say no Civil Protection Authority warned about the risk of flooding this weekend.

El Rebalse

Conagua unfinished works on the Marabasco

Conagua works could cause the river Marabasco to overflow

Marabasco, Manzanillo, Colima, June 8.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) left unfinished works of dredging and construction of containment walls of the Marabasco river on the border between Jalisco and Colima. That leaving a potential overflow condition. Also an unannounced section was narrowed by more than 80 meters of the channel walls causing a bottleneck.

The Natural Disaster Fund (Fonden)(Hurricane Jova related) allocated the amount of 265 million pesos for an estimated duration of six months work. However, the machinery stopped operating a little over three weeks ago.

On a tour of the area, we can see that in a stretch of river work was not announced, which adds to the unjustified reduction of the channel width.  While the start of the work respected its 125 meter wide channel, four miles downstream it is reduced to 20 meters with curved sand walls.

"This risk is a result of the lack of state coordination of a single unit, which is Conagua. This is a clear case of how a government work endangers the inhabitants of the area, it's ridiculous what they did, with the 125 meters wide runway reduced to 20 meters, such stupid things are not necessary and not the first", said Alfredo Cuarón, incharge of the area.

Protesters have delivered a letter to the governor of Colima, Mario Anguiano Moreno, to make arrangements with the Conagua to finish the work and redo the work of the curve of the river, to better protect the land on Colima and Jalisco sides.

So far they have received no response to the letter that was delivered just over a week ago.

Obras de Conagua podrían provocar el desbordamiento del río Marabasco

Behind Cihuatlan Jalisco and the Marabasco river

I've been up these roads, to the dam and even miles beyond where the road ends in the head of a valley. Each time the trip is different depending on the season (how green or brown) or condition of the dam. In the dry season they add about 10 feet of earth behind the cement dam to help divert more water to the irrigation canals on either side of the river. The south side of the river is Colima and to the north is Jalisco - both with lots of farming on the river delta.

There is a little town of Marabasco just south of the bridge with a No-Tell motel along the way. Turn left just before you reach town and you can follow the irrigation canals up to the dam. The area is popular for fishing and cooling off during family outings. Some kids told us about a well on the Colima side that they say dates back to the times when the indigenous peoples lived there - it's possible!