Mexico City is at risk of running out of water, with some speculating “day zero” may come as early as this year.
Water shortages in parts of the city have been ongoing for years, as low rainfall and water management issues have coincided with exponential growth in demand. Now, with four months still until supposedly wetter weather comes, some areas have already been suffering from lack of water and restricted use.
Water used to be considered “an enemy”
Part of the problem is geographic. The highly populated megacity sits on a lakebed at 2,225 metres (7,300 feet) altitude. The original Aztec city builders started when the place was an island and used canals and bridges, but all that was dismantled in the 16th century when the Spanish arrived and rid the city of its water, which they considered “an enemy to overcome” according to Jose Alfredo Ramirez, co-director of Groundlab, a design research initiative reported by CNN.
An underground aquifer provides 60% of the city’s water, but it has been so over-exploited the city is now sinking into this ground water layer, at an astonishing rate of half a metre a year (20 inches). To make matters worse, the development of the city has been piecemeal and chaotic, not the best basis for efficient and forward-thinking urban planning for water usage.
Natural marshes and rivers have disappeared, only reappearing in uncontrolled floods that run off hard surfaces instead of replenishing the ground water in rainy season. The rest of the time the city is almost waterless and water must be pumped through leaky infrastructure uphill from external sources, wasting around 40% on the way, estimates UNAM Global.
Severe droughts, extreme temperatures, leaky infrastructure
The Cutzamala water network of reservoirs, pumping stations, canals and tunnels, usually should provide approximately 25% of the Valley of Mexico’s water but, following severe droughts and extreme temperatures that have caused evaporation, stands at just 39% of its capacity, which is only “half of the amount of water that we should have,” said Fabiola Sosa-Rodríguez, head of economic growth and environment at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City.
As a result, water extraction from the reservoir has been restricted since October, when Conagua, the country’s national water commission, began cutting provision, first by 8%, then by 25% in order to “distribute the water that Cutzamala has over time, to ensure that it does not run out,” said Germán Arturo Martínez Santoyo, the Conagua’s Director General.
“Day zero” this year?
As a result, in some neighbourhoods, such as Tlalpan, local residents have been without regular running water for months. Some city dwellers have large water storage facilities and can order hundreds of dollars of water deliveries from water trucks, but others are forced to make do with what they can carry home, and what they can recycle. It is no joke. Climate-change-driven heatwaves are striking more and more frequently and one took 200 lives at least last summer.
Friction is therefore growing between wealthier districts that are largely unbothered by the shortages, and those who have been trying to cope with the problem for far too long.
Meanwhile Conagua says on its website it is undertaking a three-year project to bring new infrastructure online, such as wells and commissioning water treatment plants. Obrador’s government authorities are seeking to reassure citizens that day zero will not come any time soon, but local media have reported one Conagua official predicting the water will run out on June 26 2024.
