Tijuana Mayor Ismael Burgueño Ruiz announced on March 23 that water concession titles delivered to Baja California municipalities guarantee the region’s water supply for the next 30 years. Burgueño said the concessions eliminate the need for water rationing, known locally as “tandeos,” which have disrupted neighborhoods across the city for decades.
Concession Titles Cover Multiple Baja California Cities
The concession titles represent a formal federal authorization for municipalities to extract and distribute water from designated sources. CONAGUA (Mexico’s national water commission) issues these concessions, which define how much water a city or utility can legally draw from rivers, aquifers, and aqueducts over a set period.
Tijuana’s water system is managed by CESPT (the state public services commission for Tijuana), which serves roughly 1.9 million residents. The city has relied on the Tijuana Aqueduct, a roughly 150 mile pipeline carrying Colorado River water from the Morelos Dam near Mexicali, as its primary supply since the 1980s. Before that, Tijuana depended on groundwater that was eventually depleted.
Rationing Has Been a Recurring Problem
Water rationing in Tijuana and neighboring Playas de Rosarito has been a persistent reality. Neighborhoods routinely experience scheduled shutoffs lasting hours or even days, forcing residents to store water in rooftop tanks called “tinacos” or buy deliveries from private trucks at $20 to $30 per load.
A 2020 study found that urban water demand in Baja California’s coastal zone, which includes Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito, and Ensenada, had already exceeded supply by nearly 34,000 acre feet. One acre foot equals about 326,000 gallons, enough to serve three U.S. households for a year. Researchers have long argued that expanding aqueduct capacity between Mexicali and Tijuana is the most critical infrastructure investment for the region.
Burgueño did not specify the volume of water guaranteed under the new concession titles or identify which water sources they cover. He also did not address whether new infrastructure projects would accompany the concessions to physically deliver the promised supply. A previous attempt to build a desalination plant in Rosarito in 2011 failed to materialize.
The 30 year timeline would extend water rights through approximately 2056. Baja California’s next major test of its water infrastructure could come sooner, as Colorado River allocations face ongoing renegotiation between the United States and Mexico under the 1944 binational water treaty, according to Zeta Tijuana.