The Pitillal River Is Alive

The rivers have been the gateway to a whole diversity of life that is distributed throughout a hydrological basin. In the case of the Pitillal River there is much to think about, see and do.

Since the year 2021, the municipal authorities with the support of Civil Protection, initiated a series of activities that they have described as prevention and mitigation; for this they said they have the corresponding authorization and permits from the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) mitigation to prevent flooding and they continue to be carried out continuously.

However, the clearing activities have diminished the so-called gallery forest and, because there is less tree mass, the migratory birds that arrive to the region's water bodies year after year are also diminished.

In that year there were several demonstrations in defense of life in the river, activist groups and society came to try to prevent the trees from being felled, which were forming almost a forest in the center of the river, sheltering different species of reptiles and other species.

What can now be seen is desolate compared to what it once was, but there is still life, which we must know and defend.

There is a very marked contrast between the Riviera of the river and what was once the water current; on the banks, among the trees you can see birds and their nests, in the center there is only sand and few plants. Under the sand, at a depth of approximately 1 meter, water can be found, but it is not very accessible for the species of insects, birds and rodents that inhabit this important tributary.

There is no doubt that it is urgent to reflect on the integrated management of the watershed, human activity around the river, the extraction of mineral and plant resources, and immoderate logging.