Mexico’s federal government has unveiled the Plan Nacional de Tecnificación, a six-year, 60 billion-peso programme intended to modernise agricultural irrigation and free up water for urban use. President Claudia Sheinbaum introduced the initiative during her daily press conference, calling the effort essential to ensuring water is treated as a human right. Conagua, the agency leading the project, aims to recover as much as 2,800 million cubic metres of water—roughly triple Mexico City’s annual consumption—by replacing antiquated flood-irrigation systems with high-efficiency methods such as drip and micro-sprinklers. Agriculture consumes 76 percent of the country’s water; officials say upgrading more than 200,000 hectares of farmland could redirect a significant share to households. The plan involves rehabilitating canals, presas derivadoras and control gates, installing automated measuring equipment, and rolling out ductless ‘mini-split’ pumping where needed. Six projects are already under way in Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes, with another ten in tender. Priority districts border water-stressed cities including Aguascalientes, Ciudad Juárez, León and the Mexico City metropolitan area. Military engineers and state governments will assist with construction. Recent rains have lifted the Cutzamala reservoir system, a key source for the capital, to 67.86 percent of capacity (about 531 million m³). Even so, national storage across 210 major dams stands at only half full, underscoring the importance of recovering irrigation water to bolster urban supplies.