According to data from the company Odiser Empresarial, which controls water levels in Mérida, we are now 1.40 meters above average sea level, reported Juan Vázquez Montalvo, meteorologist at the Autonomous University of Yucatán and hydrometeorological consultant.
“The data is the pressure of the aquifer, which is the height of the groundwater, about the mean sea level, and the groundwater moves from higher pressures far from the coast to lower pressures near the coast.”
“This value is calculated by subtracting the elevation of the land concerning sea level minus the height of the water body,” explained the specialist.
It is expected that these pressures are higher in the interior of the State and lower on the coast because the water comes from the interior of the State and goes to the sea, he said. He stressed that this is how underground water moves and you can imagine how much water there is.
Now we are at 1.40 meters above mean sea level and at these times we generally walk about .80 m or .90 m, he said.
“We are fine, we do not have an excess, but we do have a stock so that the state of Yucatán has not had water problems until now.”
The expert indicated that the models indicate that this year the rainy season will be greater than average, but it is not expected that the aquifer will overflow due to this rainfall.
“The aquifer would overflow due to rainy cyclones like those that occurred in 2020 and from which there is still water,” he noted.
In addition, he explained that we are entering the most intense phase of the drought so if it does not rain, the water level will decrease and therefore, the potential will decrease in value.
It should reach up to one meter above average sea level from the intense part of the drought to May, this is what we are calculating and it will be the optimal or average level that it will reach, he noted.
It was too much with what there was in 2020, which gave us water. So far it has not been raining as it should, he noted.
“The rains have been within the average or below it and it has not been raining evenly.”
The specialist said that the rainy season will come, and mathematical models indicate that it will be a season well above average. In the state, it rains more in the eastern area, part of the northeast, and southeast, therefore the thickness of fresh water is quite high.
“They are the richest areas in the state, the most forested, with the largest trees, the greenest. The areas include Valladolid, Peto, Campeche, Chemax, and south of Tizimín, among others. There it rains an average of 1,200 to 1,300 millimeters a year, it is the area that rains the most, he reiterated. The mathematical model says that it will rain much more than average, so we expect amounts of rain greater than what is marked, between 200 or 300 extra millimeters, he said.
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