Water

Confirming how the property will get water: a municipal network, trucked water to a cistern, or a well.

Why it matters

Many rural lots near Pescadero and Todos Santos have no network service. A feasibility letter is required later for your building license.

Who helps

OOMSAPAS for the feasibility letter (factibilidad). CONAGUA for well concessions (procedure CONAGUA-01-004-A, groundwater).

What to do: Confirm how the property will get water before you buy.

Documents

Clave catastral, location, survey, and (later) preliminary plans.

The 2025 water-law reform (what changed)

The new Ley General de Aguas was published in the DOF on Dec 11, 2025 and took effect the next day, alongside reforms to the Ley de Aguas Nacionales.
- Human and domestic use has priority. CONAGUA can reduce or cancel volumes that aren't used.
- The national water registry is now the REPNA (it replaced the REPDA).
- Concessions can no longer be sold or transferred between private parties without going back through CONAGUA. Don't pay a seller for "water rights" without CONAGUA confirming what transfers.
- Penalties increased sharply: fines up to 30,000 UMA, and 1–10 years of prison for certain water crimes (for example, unauthorized wells or diversions).
- A regularization decree (DOF Oct 28, 2025) covered titles that expired between Oct 2017 and Mar 2025; its filing window closed Apr 28, 2026.
- Extensions of a current concession must be requested between 3 years and 6 months before it expires.
- States had 180 days to harmonize their own water laws; ask your attorney whether BCS has updated its own law (confirm locally).

Domestic wells

CONAGUA's procedure treats a pumped groundwater well for household use as needing a concession (procedure CNA-01-004); purely domestic requests in rural areas under about 150 m³ per year are exempt from some technical documents, not from the concession itself. Have your attorney confirm how the new law treats small domestic wells.

Costs Estimate

La Paz OOMSAPAS feasibility letter: MXN 351.20, with a site visit, up to 30 days.
La Paz residential connection right: reported at MXN 25,500 for 2026 (news report, not the official tariff table).
Well concession: no published cost. CONAGUA's posted resolution time for a groundwater concession (CONAGUA-01-004-A) is 30 business days once the file is complete, filed through its digital water-procedures window (it was 60 business days before a March 2025 simplification agreement).
Local aquifers (CONAGUA availability, published for 2026): the El Pescadero aquifer (0314) shows a small positive availability but is under an indefinite veda (restricted extraction); the Todos Santos aquifer (0313) shows a deficit (negative availability). New concessions in deficit aquifers are hard to get.

Estimates only. Get written quotes.

Common mistakes

Assuming a nearby pipe means you can connect.
Digging a well without a concession.
Buying a lot whose "well" has no title in the REPNA. Ask for the concession title and check it.
Paying for transferred water rights that CONAGUA won't recognize under the 2025 law.