2007 Tabasco Flood - Causes of The Floods

Causes of The Floods

The Tabasco floods caused largely by the sinking of the land over the last century. The constant extraction of petroleum and gas, the construction of dams in the zone, the erosion of land and deforestation have all contributed toward making this region more flood-prone. Deforestation has allowed silt to fill in rivers thereby reducing their capacity and making floods more likely. With the onset of constant rainfall due to a low pressure system located nearby, the combination of these influences contributed to making the flood event even worse than it might otherwise have been.

Some have suggested that Global warming has increased sea levels, making water regions at the low sandy zones of the Gulf of Mexico disappear. However, sea level rises due to global warming are probably still negligible in their contribution to these floods.

A number of sources point to the misuse of hydroelectric dams as a cause of the floods. Hydroelectric plants in the dams of Tabasco share the production of electricity with newer, private, more expensive gas plants. Investors complained that government owned plants cover most of the production of the electricity, lowering the price, and have put pressure on the government to lessen production on hydroelectric plants in order for them to sell more energy and raise their profit levels. This allegedly led to the dams retaining more water than they should have done.