Unless major measures are taken, one of the world’s largest cities may face a “zero day” as early as 2028-when the water supply is so low that the government must start rationing precious liquids.

Many working-class residents Neighborhood Ascapocalco, northwest of Mexico City, has a very dry Christmas this year. Many families stopped water supply on Christmas Day, Alleged result Three power stations in the substation that supplies power to nearby wells are out of power. The representative of Sacmex Water System in Mexico City stated that this situation will be resolved within a few hours. In the end, it took ten days, until local residents forcedly resolved the problem by blocking nearby main roads in a typical Mexican way.

“They told us that they will bring us water tankers and the service will be fully restored the next day,” said Paty Pérez, a resident of the area. Tell Daily Excelsior. “We can’t have no water. Azcapotzalco is one of the cities that has been short of water. There are old people living on the fourth floor of their building, and they have to carry the floating building.”

It is not just poor communities that are affected by the worsening water crisis in Mexico City. Whenever my Mexican wife and I come to her home city (where we are now), we live in a 13-story apartment located in the leafy and colorful middle class of Coyoacan On the edge of the district, this is not only the home of the museum de Frida Kahlo, but also the former residence of Leon Trotsky, both of which are well worth a visit. This apartment belongs to a generous and gregarious Argentine immigrant in his seventies, whom my wife considers to be an adopted aunt.

She and her neighbor also encountered water problems. At any time, especially in the spring, the supply may suddenly dry up, and it may not recover within a few hours or even the next day. This situation has been happening for many years, but it started to happen frequently when construction began in 2012 on a huge skyscraper complex called Complejo Mitikah a few blocks away. The complex has two office buildings, one of which is owned by We Work, both of which are covered by the Mitikah Building, which is a 67-story apartment building that will become the largest residential skyscraper in Mexico City when completed.

complicated Billed As a completely independent “vertical city”, it will include a huge shopping mall, a supermarket, a private hospital, gym, swimming pool, bank, bars and restaurants. If the residents of skyscrapers (many of whom will undoubtedly work from home) would rather not venture into the city, they don’t have to; almost everything they might want or need is on site.

Naturally, the complex greatly increased the water demand of the local community, but it was other local residents who paid the price. The underground water tanks serving nearby residential buildings are increasingly drying up. This is especially true in the spring, just before the start of the rainy season in Mexico. It may take hours or in extreme cases even days before the water tanker arrives to refill the tank. During public holidays or long weekends, the government sometimes cuts off the water supply to residents in order to carry out much-needed maintenance work.

Two years of drought

Mexico has had low rainfall for two consecutive years. In April 2021, the situation was already serious.As an article by El País famous In May, “surviving the dry season largely depends on how much water accumulates in the wet months”:

“In 2020, rainfall will not be enough to fill all of the country’s dam network, so now, of Mexico’s 210 largest dams, more than half have less than 50% capacity. In addition, 61 are at critical levels with less than 25% capacity. %, mainly in northern and central Mexico.”

Mexico is no stranger to the water crisis. In 1996 and 2011, the country suffered a severe drought, but with nation The article pointed out that no lessons were learned. It is also true that Mexico has not fully taken care of its precious water resources. Mexico City itself is located in the heart of the Mexico Valley region, which was once home to a huge network of lakes. The valley is located in the Trans-Mexico volcanic belt and encompasses most of the Mexico City metropolitan area and parts of four neighboring states: Mexico, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Tlaxcala.

Between the 17th and early 20th centuries, the five lakes in the Valley of Mexico — Xaltocan, Chalco, Texcoco, Xochimilco, and Zumpango — were almost completely drained, partly to protect the city from continuous flooding, but there were also Help its development. Mexico City can only grow into a huge metropolis through a ruthless land reclamation process. Xochimilco in southern Mexico City still exists, but it has been greatly reduced. Zumpango in Mexico State was rebuilt into a reservoir in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A step in the right direction

In the next few years, Lake Tescoco may see various revivals. About ten years ago, the drained lake bed was selected as the site of the large new international airport, although it continues to attract most of Mexico City’s runoff water. The ground has extremely high water content and low pressure resistance-which is not ideal for large international airports.But as i Report For Wolf Street, this would be a perfect choice for the construction company involved: once the airport is built, the long-term structural problems that follow will require a lot of maintenance work just to make the land suitable for use.

By 2018, hundreds of billions of pesos had flowed into the project, and the cost had soared. But in December of that year, Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the presidential election. After consulting the public on the matter in the referendum, his first action was to cancel the project, which shocked the investment community. AMLO government’s current Tescoco Plan It is to restore the former lake and establish a national park around it. Given that under the swamps of Texcoco is one of the most important aquifers in Mexico City, this is a welcome development for a city facing a subsistent water crisis.

As in a recent report by Greenpeace Point out, Not only is Mexico City severely short of water, but also the available water is unevenly distributed. In upper-middle-class cities such as Benito Juárez, Coyoacan, Kuotemoc, and Miguel Hidalgo, only 0.1% of households do not have running water, while in working-class communities such as Milpa Alta, this The ratio is 11%.

Digital crisis

Mexico’s water crisis has a long history. In 2016, more than 50 million Mexicans (approximately 40% of the total population) faced chronic or seasonal water shortages in urban areas. according to Research published in the journal Nature ranks Mexico as one of the countries most likely to worsen water shortages. That was before the recent drought. According to the same study, Mexico City is the third largest city on the planet facing severe (seasonal) water shortages, after Delhi and Shanghai.

The city has a population of nearly 22 million, but the local authorities Expected to reach 30 million By 2030.It has more Rainfall surpasses London But as most of the lakes disappeared, most of the water was wasted.

On a per capita basis, Mexico and Spain are the fifth largest water consumers in the world, after the United States, Australia, Italy and Japan. Like most parts of the world, Mexico’s water consumption is divided into personal water, industrial water and agricultural water. According to United Nations data, on a global scale, industry accounts for 22% of the world’s annual water consumption, while personal consumption accounts for 8%, and agriculture accounts for 70%. In Mexico, according to According to data from the National Water Affairs Commission, agriculture uses 68% to 70% of the country’s water, industry and hydroelectric power plants account for about 14%, and personal consumption accounts for about 10%.

Most water is not safe to drink. As Greenpeace reported, the concentration of metals such as arsenic, boron, iron, manganese and lead, compounds, drugs, antibiotics and other emerging pollutants in Mexico City’s groundwater has increased. Most capable people drink bottled water, which provides huge profits for companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Pepsi, while significantly increasing the country’s plastic consumption.

In the past few years, Mexico, as the world’s largest per capita consumer of bottled water, has topped many rankings. And the level of consumption continues to increase. 76% of households currently buy bottled water, according to Family and environmental research conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). According to the same document, this number is up from 70% in 2015. In the past 15 years, the total expenditure on bottled water has tripled, Report Mexican daily That day.

“Zero-day” approach

One Recent studies The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the largest university in Latin America, warns that time is running out in Mexico City. The metropolis may face its own “zero-day” as early as 2028-when the water supply is so low that the government must start rationing precious liquids.

Cape Town, South Africa is the first major city on the planet that is close to running out of water. The “zero day” came in 2018, when the South African government began to set quotas and manage the amount of water that each citizen could use. A report from the National Autonomous University of Mexico warns that the same situation may happen in Mexico City in the next ten years:

Water is the most precious resource we have, but we may run out of it within a few years. Mexico is facing a serious water crisis, but its citizens are not aware of this because water continues to flow freely from the tap.

In order to avoid running out of water… immediate action is needed…

These actions include increasing water costs for industry and farmers, raising public awareness of how to reduce personal water consumption (for example, turning off the tap when brushing teeth or saving shower water while waiting for heating) and increasing investment in the maintenance of urban water supply infrastructure. Approximately 35% of Mexico City’s water is lost due to leaks while flowing along the city’s pipe network.