Crop Lands and Lithium: Water Demands in an Extraction Zone

• In Event: Locating Extractive Development in Latin America

Abstract

In 2018 large lithium deposits were discovered in Sonora in northern Mexico. As discussion about foreign mining rights on Mexican soil dominated the news cycle, few initially questioned how this new resource might impact water reserves in these arid lands. As the birthplace of the Green Revolution, Sonora has long been prized as Mexico’s breadbasket yet in the last decade, as climate changed and urban demands for water soared, Sonoran fields often had less water than needed. Water battles in this arid region are not new but changed priorities may leave wheat's water demands in a discarded second place. In this paper I examine water needs in a space long associated with the exploitation of land, both above and below ground. In short, this paper explores how a scarce resource (water) is repackaged as a priority for mining futures instead of, how it had long been billed, food production for the nation and the world. What does this rebranding mean for local farmers and those who consume Mexican wheat?

Author

• Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Harvard University