Mexico City Infrastructure Repairs Leave Residents Dry

Mexico City is undergoing infrastructure repairs and the upgrade effort has left millions of residents without running water.

“Around half of Mexico City will suffer water cuts over the next three days, as authorities carry out maintenance to the Cutzamala supply system. Some 410 neighborhoods will be affected by the cuts,” BNAmericas reported, citing Mexico City water utility Sacmex.

“With the underground aquifer that provides most of the Mexican capital's fresh water drying at an alarming rate, the city is ever more reliant on topping up supply from the dams, pipes, and pumps of the Cutzamala system, more than 60 miles away. Maintenance work on that system has now temporarily cut off supply for about a quarter of the city's 22 million inhabitants,” VICE News reported.

Ramón Aguirre, head of water management in the city, weighed in: "These are very important emergency measures for the city," he said, per the report. "Everybody should be careful with water. They should wash using a bucket and a bowl."

Mexico City residents are no strangers to interruptions in their water service, but this break is unusually long.

“The federal government has promised there will be fewer breaks once it has finished constructing new pipes in Cutzamala system, which was built in the 1970s. But this does not address the deeper problem that there is no let up in the draining of the aquifer,” the report said.

One answer to aquifer depletion is the possibility of harvesting rainwater, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported. Enrique Lomnitz, director of the environmental group Isla Urbana, is pushing this plan.

"So you put a rainwater harvesting system into [a] house. You don't have to buy a cistern because these things are already part of the house's infrastructure. And it's not a novel concept for a family to have a whole bunch of water come into their cistern at once, and then use that water so that it lasts as long as possible. This is something that people are very used to doing," he said, per the report.

For more on the issues surrounding infrastructure upgrades, visit Water Online’s Asset Management Solutions Center.