Mexico's bold decision in 2018 to scrap a megaproject over environmental concerns is paying dividends today.
Mexico News Daily reported that the water levels in Lake Texcoco are rising to swallow up the remnants of a partially finished airport. Months of heavy rainfall in the capital region have pushed the lake's depth to four meters.
The proposed Mexico City International Airport was to be a $15 billion project built on Texcoco's ancient lakebed. However, voters overwhelmingly backed a measure to cancel the project in a referendum.
Before Spanish colonization, Lake Texcoco supported the gigantic Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the largest city in the Americas at the time. In subsequent centuries, 95% of the lake's historic expanse was lost to drainage and clearance for agricultural use. This has had dire ecological consequences for Mexico City, which is sinking at a rate of 20 inches a year and suffers from acute water shortages, per Eos.
UNESCO now recognizes Lake Texcoco as an ecohydrology site; the 10,000-hectare area is home to hundreds of bird and plant species. The vast tract of land, about 440 times the size of New York City's Central Park, will be home to a new project: the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum supported the venture as an "act of justice," allaying fears that political and international pressure could derail the project.
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As MIT Technology Review noted, one of the main hopes for the park was to restore hundreds of hectares of lost water systems. Already, the green shoots of recovery are showing amid the incomplete foundations of the canceled airport. With the proper support, nature is incredibly resilient and will bounce back if given the chance.
The encouraging news also underlines the importance of backing pro-environment candidates and mobilizing grassroots efforts. As daunting as it can seem, overcoming harmful ventures supported by big money is possible. Bold action today can build a better world tomorrow.
"Lake Texcoco is beginning to recover and refuses to disappear," Arturo González Cando of the Community Front in Defense of Land said. "… This is what we defended, a unique life in the center of the country."
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