President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on July 26 an investment of 8 billion pesos for a new water system in Acapulco and permanently cancelled La Parota dam, a megaproject that faced opposition from rural communities in Guerrero for more than two decades.

The announcement was made during a working visit to the port, where the president reviewed progress on the "Acapulco se transforma contigo" plan, designed for recovery following hurricanes Otis (October 2023) and John (September 2024). Sheinbaum was accompanied by Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda and the director of the National Water Commission (Conagua), Efraín Morales.

The new scheme replaces the La Parota hydroelectric project with radial wells in the Papagayo River basin, elevated towers and tanks that will distribute water by gravity to the city's higher-elevation neighborhoods. The intake pumps, damaged by both hurricanes, will be reinstalled at greater heights to protect them from future flooding. "The La Parota dam project is cancelled. We are not going to do that anymore because it significantly harmed the communities," Sheinbaum said, as reported by El Universal.

According to Eje Central, the hydraulic program allocates approximately 3,100 million pesos for 2026 and more than 8 billion pesos over the six-year administration. The works include the construction of five new treatment plants, the modernization of nine existing ones with a combined capacity of 2,400 liters per second, and between 24 and 30 kilometers of marginal collectors.

Excélsior reported the dredging of 13 kilometers of the La Sabana River, the construction of protective walls along the El Muerto canal, and the start of the water network renovation in the Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood. More than 205,000 residents will benefit from the cleanup of the bay; another 150,000 will be protected by the flood-control works.

Conagua estimates the current package of contracted works will be completed by December 2026. The remainder of the program will roll out over the six-year term, with new radial wells planned for coming years. Hotel occupancy at the port stood at 78 percent over the weekend, according to the president.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.