In El Sargento, a small coastal town east of La Paz, a 70-year-old water truck operator named Ramón Rafael Sanders starts work at 5 a.m. on busy days. He drives his 10,000-liter tanker to a private well in nearby Los Planes, waits up to 90 minutes in a line of trucks, fills up for 500 pesos (about $25 USD), and delivers the load to private cisterns for roughly 1,500 pesos ($75 USD). This triple-markup supply chain is the only way many coastal BCS residents get water. And the system is under severe strain.
Baja California Sur is the driest state in Mexico. The municipality of La Paz averages just 18 centimeters of rainfall per year, with swings as extreme as 2.7 centimeters in the driest years. The year 2024 was the driest of this century across BCS. That near-total drought followed roughly 18 months of almost no rain, starving the underground aquifers that feed the wells water trucks depend on.
La Paz Aquifer Operating at a Deficit Since Low-Rain Cycle Began
María Z. Flores López, a hydrologist and director of the Integrated Water Management Program at UABCS (the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur), has described the crisis as compounding. “Little rain. Saltwater intrusion. Population growing every year, and tourism,” she said. Each factor worsens the others.
In coastal aquifers, when freshwater levels drop, seawater seeps in from below. The La Paz aquifer is already operating at a deficit, meaning more water is drawn out each year than rainfall and runoff can replace. As saltwater contaminates the freshwater supply, treatment costs rise for operators like Sanders, who runs water through activated carbon filtration and mineral removal before selling it as drinking water at his purification business, El Mezquite.
Sanders has lived in El Sargento for decades and remembers when seasonal rains arrived predictably in early summer. Those patterns have shifted. Freshwater on the Baja California Peninsula depends largely on hurricanes and tropical storms that move through the region between June and October. When those storms miss the peninsula or deliver less rain than usual, aquifer recharge stalls. Two consecutive dry years can push the system toward crisis.
The pressure is not only climatic. Over the past 20 years, tourism and residential development along the East Cape corridor have surged. El Sargento and neighboring La Ventana have grown rapidly as adventure-tourism destinations, drawing kitesurfers, divers, and seasonal residents from the United States and Canada. New vacation rentals, homes, and small hotels all require water deliveries. Sanders estimates he sells 5,000 liters of purified drinking water per day during peak season, and he recently expanded his treatment capacity to keep up.
El Novillo Dam Aims to Serve 250,000 Residents Near La Paz
The federal government has committed $133 million to build El Novillo, a new dam designed to supply water to 250,000 residents in the La Paz region. The project represents an acknowledgment that the current aquifer-dependent model cannot sustain the area’s growth. But large dam projects in Mexico often face delays. CONAGUA, Mexico’s national water commission, has overseen the planning, though construction timelines have not been publicly confirmed for completion.
Even if El Novillo is built on schedule, the dam would primarily serve La Paz’s urban core. Smaller communities along the coast, including El Sargento, La Ventana, El Triunfo, and Los Barriles, would likely remain dependent on wells and water trucks for years to come.
For anyone buying or building property outside La Paz’s piped water network, this dependency has real financial consequences. A single 10,000-liter delivery at 1,500 pesos covers basic household use for roughly a week. A property with a pool, garden, or guest rental can require multiple deliveries per week during hot months. Annual water costs for a modest home in these areas can reach 50,000 to 80,000 pesos ($2,500 to $4,000 USD), a figure that rises as aquifer quality degrades and treatment becomes more expensive.
Property buyers in coastal BCS should also understand that water availability can affect resale value and rental income. A home with a large cistern, a rainwater catchment system, or proximity to a reliable well holds a practical advantage over one without. Some newer developments have begun advertising water infrastructure, including on-site desalination or dedicated storage, as selling points.
Sanders Sells 5,000 Liters Daily but Questions Long-Term Supply
Sanders, who shifted from commercial fishing to water delivery about 25 years ago, sees the paradox clearly. Scarcity is good for business in the short term. “Water is liquid gold,” he said. “It’s the best business you can find.” But he worries about what happens when consecutive drought years push the wells past their limits.
Late summer 2025 brought several centimeters of rain to the La Paz region, offering some relief after the record-dry 2024. Still, hydrologists warn that a single rainy season cannot reverse a long-term deficit. If the 2026 hurricane season underperforms, the aquifer situation could deteriorate quickly.
Sanders, a father of five and grandfather of twelve, puts it simply: “If there’s no water, there’s no life.” The next major test will come this summer, when seasonal demand peaks and residents learn whether the 2026 rains arrive on time. Reporting for this story was originally published by Yale Climate Connections.