Guadalajara residents turn to citizen science as water crisis deepens

On a Saturday morning in Guadalajara's Analco neighborhood, community members gathered at the Casa Bandera center with water bottles from their homes to participate in a citizen water-monitoring workshop. Researchers from ITESO, a Jesuit university, guided attendees in testing water samples for pH, chlorine, lead, mercury and other indicators using affordable reactive strips.

Participants learned to compare the color changes in the strips to a chart measuring water quality parameters. Héctor Morales, a workshop presenter, emphasized that the goal was not to replace professional science but to generate knowledge from everyday observations.

The water crisis in Guadalajara has prompted residents to take matters into their own hands, forming a network of citizen water-monitoring that has grown out of frustration with inadequate information and action from authorities. María González of IMDEC explained that the testing serves two purposes: helping families protect themselves and creating evidence to pressure authorities for action.

So far, the network has analyzed 184 samples from 90 neighborhoods across five municipalities. The tests found residual chlorine in 12 samples, lead in 20, fluoride in 52, and E. coli in four samples. However, the citizen monitoring does not provide a statistically representative survey of the city's water supply and does not measure all required parameters under Mexico's drinking-water standard.