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Mexico City is facing severe water shortages that could see declamatory part of the city feed dry in months .
The megacity and its environs , home to approximately 22 million hoi polloi , has been stomach from moderate to particular drought since the beginning of 2024 . In an drive to conserve this water , officials have restricted access for many residents to an hr or so of water supply every few days .
Mexico City’s Zócalo square, the city’s main square and the former ceremonial center of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.
A combination of factors — including fall rain , increased temperatures , tattling infrastructure and urban conurbation — are pushing the urban center ’s water supplying further to the verge . Without drastic measures expert have warned that a " day zero , " where freely - useable water services completely crumple across the metropolis , could be just a few month away .
" We ’re extracting water at twice the speed that the aquifer replenishes . This is causing damages to base , impacts on the pee organization and land subsidence,“Jorge Alberto Arriaga , the coordinator of the water supply web for the National Autonomous University of Mexico , told Spanish paper El Pais .
Roughly 60 % of Mexico City ’s water comes from an secret aquifer and the remainder is pumped uphill from outside the city . But the aquifer has been overused , make the body politic to subside at a pace ofaround 20 inches ( 51 centimeter ) per yearsince 1950 .
The pumped water , on the other handwriting , is prostrate to leakage , with 40 % of its contentsgetting lost in transit . And as much of the once - permeable earth is now covered in concrete , the piddle does n’t needfully seep back into aquifer .
accord to Reuters , the biggest of these systems , the Cutzamala System , was pumping only 39.7 % of its full capacity at the end of January . This is a decrease from 41 % in December , and a sharp-worded fall from 54 % in January 2023 .
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The city ’s place is heighten by its geographics and history . situate at gamey - altitude , it was once the emplacement for the Aztec metropolis ofTenochtitlan — a urban center founded on an island on Lake Texcoco and build up outward through aningenious mesh of duct , bridges and artificial islands .
After conquering Tenochtitlan in 1521 , the Spanish tore down the metropolis and run out its lake , founding Mexico City on the soft , clay - rich soil of the lake bed . The result is a city vulnerable both to earthquakes and , from the death of its natural water cycle , droughts .
These drought have been getting longer and harsher , partly because of climate alteration and also due to this year ’s El Niño climate pattern ( which has boosted temperatures in the region and across Latin America ) .
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To direct the problem , officials have said they will set out todig for more wells around the city alongside improving wastewater treatmentto ensure all residents get enough piddle .
Whether or not these movement avert " day zero " , or whether it has already commence to arrive , remains to be seen .
" We have to regard that ' day zero ' is now , because the river are contaminated , the outpouring are overexploited , this is what we must understand,“José Antonio Rodríguez Tirado , a water management consultant who gave advice to Mexico ’s Chamber of deputy on the crisis , toldForbes Mexico .
With the monsoon time of year not due to come until May or June , resident have some fourth dimension yet until there is a reprieve .
