Cuitzeo lake is the second largest natural freshwater lake in the country and IT is part of a watershed that encompass ten million acres divided in 20 municipalities, all converging and influencing…

This $5,362,587 federal project grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service under the North American Wetlands Conservation Fund (CFDA 15.623) program. The grant recipient, Ducks Unlimited De Mexico, A.C. (DUMAC), is using the funds to implement a multi-year integrated watershed management plan for the Cuitzeo Lake in Mexico. Key activities include:

• Constructing 10 new wastewater treatment plants and assisting in the development of 7 larger plants to address water quality issues and reduce contaminant runoff into the lake, a critical wetland habitat for migratory and resident waterfowl and shorebirds.
• Implementing eco-technologies like dry toilets and biodigesters in rural communities to further improve wastewater treatment capacity in the watershed.
• Conducting training workshops that have engaged over 14,000 community members in the watershed conservation efforts.

These activities aim to protect and enhance the Cuitzeo Lake watershed, which encompasses 10 million acres and provides important habitat for diverse wildlife species. The grant award provides funding from May 2024 through May 2026 to continue the long-term wetlands management plan developed by DUMAC in partnership with federal, state, and local agencies in Mexico.

Cuitzeo lake is the second largest natural freshwater lake in the country and IT is part of a watershed that encompass ten million acres divided in 20 municipalities, all converging and influencing the lake as an endorreic freshwater wetland. Considered one of the key wetlands for waterfowl and shorebirds according to mexican plans. The most important threats cuitzeo lake is facing are land use change in the watershed, due to the expansion of the agriculture frontier, bad agriculture practices, uncontrolled timber harvesting and urban development, which have caused soil erosion and the acceleration of the sedimentation process in the lake. IT presents an over fertilization due to discharges of untreated wastewater containing fertilizers, agrochemicals and organic contaminants from human settlements. The fragmentation of wetlands by the construction of a road infrastructure is another important issue. IT has changed the hydrological dynamics and has caused variations in the water table, affecting the economic activities and distribution of resident and migratory bird species. All these problems place migratory birds at risk due to organic contamination and loss of habitat for other wildlife species by inadequate farming techniques along the watershed.to prioritize the activities where dumac should be working at, we, with funding from the gonzalo RIO arronte foundation, developed five years ago, an integrated watershed management plan for cuitzeo lake, with the participation of different federal, state and municipal government agencies and users. This document has served as guideline to deliver projects and activities conducted in the area. As part of this management plan, a working group analyzed the needs on the number of new wastewater treatment plants (wwtp) needed to reduce the runoff of contaminants resulting in a list of 48 wwtp. Conagua (national water commission) and dumac has taken the lead and share the responsibility to secure the funding needed to build this infrastructure in conjunction with the 13 municipalities that are adjacent to the lake. IT is been agreed that the largest wwtp will be responsibility of conagua and the state water watershed management commission (ceac) and the municipalities and dumac, will attend small rural communities. To date, dumac has built restored 10 wwtps. We are currently working on the construction of a new one, which will reach 40% of the small plants needed in the watershed. While conagua and ceac have worked on the construction of 7 larger plants, to meet the needs of the largest cities in the watershed. We have assessed water quality parameters in the inflow and outflow of the wwtp we have built, documenting a reduction on the BOD from 386 to 36 MG l and in fecal coliforms, a reduction from 17600 to 26 NMP 100ML, both measurements complying with the mexican official norm for these contaminants, which is an indicator of the effectiveness of this infrastructure. With THESE10 plants that are in operation, we are treating 8.52 million FT3 per year since 2014. We have also achieved the retention of 11,518.82 FT3 of organic wastes and treating 397,910.15 FT3 of wastewater per year since 2012 in rural communities lacking sewage treatment systems, throughout the installation of ECO-technologies such as dry toilets and biodigesters. Our training workshops have had the participation of more than 14,264 people from rural communities within the watershed. This new phase will allow US to maintain the synergy created 13 years ago among all different partners in the state, independently of the changes within the government administrations, towards the fulfillment of the watershed management plan. All activities projected in this proposal, will benefit the quality of the cuitzeo lake as an important key wetland for migratory and resident waterfowl, shorebirds and other waterbird species and will improve the living quality of the rural communities living inside the cuitzeo lake watershed.