Flowing with Purpose: Supporting New Water Restoration Initiatives in Mexico

Guided by our strategy to help build a Water Positive Future, first announced in 2022, P&G continues to make progress against its ambitions, which include reducing water in our operations, restoring water in 18 water-stressed areas around the world and responding to water challenges through innovation and partnerships. Water is essential both for making and using our products, used by billions of people around the world.

With the help of our partners and implementing organizations, we continue to make progress toward our restoration ambitions by supporting projects that help to improve, better manage or protect freshwater resources across 18 water-stressed areas. This includes projects like those being implemented by Nacion Verde, Pronatura Mexico, Agua Capital, Fondo Pro Cuenca Valle de Bravo and Reforestamos Mexico to address water challenges facing metropolitan Mexico City.

Selected for their potential to make a positive impact on water for people and nature, these new projects are expected to help improve water security and ecosystem resilience across many of the areas providing water to Mexico City. They will support the replenishment of aquifers that supply the metro area and improve water quality as a result of reforestation and land management project activities.

The four new projects we are supporting to advance our water restoration goals are:

Water for People and Monarchs

P&G is working with Nacion Verde to improve water security within the Cutzamala system by implementing a variety of restoration activities near the “El Bosque” Dam in Zitácuaro, Michoacán. Nacion Verde, a long-standing Mexican environmental NGO, will focus on soil conservation, fire prevention and reforestation to enhance water infiltration while reducing runoff in the area. The project is expected to reduce runoff by a volume of 1.2 billion liters annually, helping to recharge the aquifers supplying the Cutzamala System, which is a key water source for the Mexico City metro area and the State of Mexico. Additionally, the project includes the planting of 20,000 native trees in the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, with further benefits anticipated, including the creation of seasonal jobs for vulnerable communities in the area, protection of the monarch butterfly habitat, and improving ecosystem resilience to climate change.

Sierra Guadalupe Micro Dams

P&G is supporting Pronatura Mexico to construct 80 gabion dams in Sierra de Guadalupe State Park to replenish billions of liters of water to aquifers that supply the Mexico City metro area. These simple structures are designed to stabilize soil, manage water flow and reduce erosion. When placed in a river or stream, gabion dams can help slow down water movement, capture sediment and improve water quality. They have been shown to capture heavy rainfall, replenishing aquifers, retaining sediment, reducing erosion and mitigating flood risk for downstream communities. The project will also include activities aimed at protecting the natural resources of the State Park through soil and water conservation works.

Conservation & Restoration in the Amanalco-Valle de Bravo Sub-basin

P&G, in partnership with Agua Capital, is supporting a project led by Fondo Pro Cuenca Valle de Bravo to implement a series of reforestation and restoration activities that are anticipated to contribute to the water security of the Cutzamala System, one of Mexico City’s main water sources. This project is designed to reduce the surface runoff in the area, which is contributing to poor water quality in the rivers and canals. An anticipated 250 million liters of water will be restored. This project is also expected to contribute economic and social benefits to the communities through job creation and the management and protection of natural resources in the area.

Izta-Popo Forest Conservation and Management

P&G, in partnership with Agua Capital and Reforestamos Mexico, will help protect, conserve, restore and manage forested areas in the Izta-Popo region through a forest conservation and management project. The project focuses on activities that aim to increase the capture, infiltration and recharge of the Texcoco and Chalco-Amecameca aquifers, which supply water to water-stressed Mexico City metropolitan area. Reforestamos Mexico, an organization of experts in forest conservation, restoration and management, plans to conserve over 400 hectares and restore 38 hectares of land, leading to an estimated one billion liters of water infiltrating into these essential aquifers each year. In addition to the volumetric benefits, this project is expected to provide environmental, economic and social advantages, including planting 19,000 trees, establishing a forest nursery to support reforestation projects in the region, and improving soil health.