Los Cabos is preparing to buy another Widoo-type machine for the San José del Cabo estuary, while officials continue to look into an earlier purchase that current authorities say they never received. The new equipment is meant to speed the removal of water hyacinth, an invasive plant that has repeatedly forced cleanup crews back into the protected wetland. The decision places the current cleanup effort alongside a still-unresolved question about what happened to the first machine.
Los Cabos to Buy Widoo Machine for Estuary Cleanup
Los Cabos will buy a new Widoo-type machine to remove water hyacinth from the San José del Cabo estuary, even as municipal officials continue to look into an earlier purchase they say has not been located.
Municipal Ecology and Environment Director Jorge Armando López Espinoza said the current administration cannot pause cleanup work while it searches for the equipment allegedly bought during the previous government of former Los Cabos Mayor Oscar Leggs Castro. The statement was reported on May 25 by Peninsular Digital.
According to that report, López Espinoza said neither the Widoo machine nor the money from the prior purchase has appeared. He said the municipality will continue to clean and remove water hyacinth because of the damage the plant causes to the estuary.
Another purchase while questions remain
The new acquisition follows more than a year of questions over the earlier equipment. In October 2024, Diario El Independiente reported that the former administration had received about 4 million pesos from the Environmental Sanitation Trust to buy a Widoo machine, but the equipment had not arrived in the municipality.
That same 2024 report quoted then-Ecology Director Natali Cruz Ocampo as saying the new administration had not received the machine and was investigating whether the money had been spent. She said the proper authority would determine what action should follow.
Context for the purchase goes back further. Hoy BCS reported in September 2022 that municipal officials had sought advice from Lake Chapala on controlling lirio acuático, after concluding that the scale of the problem in the San José estuary required specialized machinery. That report placed the estimated cost of a Wido machine at about 4 million pesos, with additional equipment also under consideration.
Earlier public statements also tied the planned purchase to Los Cabos’ environmental sanitation funding. In August 2023, Oscar Leggs said the municipality planned to acquire industrial equipment for cleaning and desilting work in the estuary, with resources expected from the environmental sanitation tax.
Water hyacinth remains a recurring problem
Local cleanup efforts have continued while the equipment issue remains unresolved. The Los Cabos government said in a municipal update that crews, officials, and supporting groups had removed more than 150 tons of water hyacinth and lechuguilla from the estuary over 16 working days, using kayaks and specialized machinery to move and extract plant material.
The municipality also said heavy machinery had to wait until the end of the nesting season for the gallito marino, an endemic species, before entering the area. That detail reflects the limits on work inside the protected zone.
For a broader background, Vallarta Daily previously reported on a five-year San José estuary plan that addresses contamination, invasive plants, water recovery, and wildfire risks at the site. The new Widoo purchase now becomes part of that continuing effort to manage the estuary’s most visible invasive-plant problem.
Pronatura Noroeste describes the San José del Cabo estuary as a State Ecological Reserve and a Ramsar-listed area, with records of 217 aquatic bird species, including migratory birds and species in risk categories.
The latest announcement did not state the cost of the new machine, a delivery date, or whether any administrative or legal finding had been made in the previous purchase inquiry.
