Baja California Sur Governor Víctor Manuel Castro Cosío traveled to Mexico City to pitch federal officials on a second desalination plant for Los Cabos, a project aimed squarely at Cabo San Lucas, where chronic water shortages have frustrated residents and businesses for years.
Castro Cosío met with the heads of BANOBRAS (Mexico’s national infrastructure development bank) and CONAGUA (the National Water Commission) to present the Desaladora II project. The governor said the meetings produced new technical and financial support frameworks for the plant under the state’s 2026 to 2030 Infrastructure Investment Plan.
A Second Plant to Ease Cabo’s Water Crisis
The first Los Cabos desalination plant, built by Spanish firm ACCIONA, was designed to pump 650 liters per second using reverse osmosis technology. That facility was expected to serve roughly 140,000 residents. But the municipality’s population has surged past 460,000, and tourism growth has pushed demand well beyond what a single plant can deliver.
Private developments have filled part of the gap. An estimated 30 smaller desalination plants now operate across Cabo, many run by individual hotel and residential complexes that have built their own water infrastructure off the city grid. For households connected to the municipal system, though, low pressure and intermittent service remain common complaints, especially during peak tourist season.
Broader Infrastructure Push
The desalination plant is the centerpiece of a broader financing package Castro Cosío presented to federal officials. The state’s 2026 to 2030 plan combines public funds with mixed public-private investment schemes across energy, transportation, ports, water, health, and education. The governor said specific federally approved projects would be announced in the coming weeks.
As recently as January 2026, Castro Cosío was publicly pressing CONAGUA to clear legal hurdles that had delayed the Los Cabos desalination expansion. The Desaladora II project would use reverse osmosis treatment and return brine to the ocean, according to project documentation tracked by BNamericas.
BCS receives an average of just 160 millimeters of rain per year, compared to a national average of 760 millimeters. That makes desalination one of the few viable long-term solutions for the southern tip of the peninsula, where aquifer levels have declined steadily. No timeline or cost estimate for Desaladora II has been made public yet.
The story was first reported by the BCS state government’s official news site.