Mexico City is running out of water. Here’s why and how millions of residents are affected

John Yang:

Mexico City, one of the world's most populous cities could be just months away from running out of water. It's been brought on by a combination of geography, mushrooming growth, and leaky infrastructure all compounded by the effects of climate change.

Emily Green is a journalist based in Mexico City who's covered the story for NPR. Emily, what's the situation there now? What's daily life like now? For just for you, you live there in Mexico City? Are there restrictions on water use?

Emily Green, Journalist:

There are restrictions on water use. I think it very much depends where you live in the city. And that is maybe like the entire world, you know, if you have more money, and you're going to feel the impact of the water shortage, much less.

That said, I think what's unique right now is that it is being felt city wide. And I'll just use myself as an example. I live in one of the more upscale neighborhoods in Mexico City. And while reporting the story, the water stopped flowing from the top, I'm going to had a sink full of dishes, zero water coming.

For me, it was a little shocking. I haven't had that happen in a while. But that is actually a daily reality for many people in Mexico City.

John Yang:

What are the factors that brought us to this point?

Emily Green:

I would say that there is two major factors. One is extremely old infrastructure in terms of the water pipes. So the city loses around 40 percent of the water recedes because of leaks in the pipes. And that's been a long standing problem.

But on top of that compounding that is climate change. And that is really what's happening right here, you have this very volatile combination of old infrastructure, combined with climate change, which means there have been years of much less rainfall than normal. This is the level of the reservoir that provide the water to Mexico City, the very low. And so that's what's happening now this kind of volatile combination.

John Yang:

And you say that leakage has been a problem for a long time. Has anyone tried to do anything about it?

Emily Green:

Oh, yeah, I remember I was here in 2018. And they the city shut off the water supply in order to try and address these leaks. And that was one of the first water stories I did in Mexico City was at that time, but of course, we're still having the same issues. So it doesn't seem that made a huge difference.

John Yang:

You said earlier that people who are better off feel it less than people who may be in need is that because of the resources they have? Or is it the parts of the city that are affected?

Emily Green:

Both. I visited one area, it's called (inaudible), it is in the Greater Metropolitan Mexico City. And in this neighborhood, they haven't had running water for two years now. And the running water that they do have, it comes out and it looks dark brown, and it smelled like sewage.

So that is a bug where they're living in the city has a major impact. But I think on top of that, what's happening is that if the water is not coming from the tap, people are buying it from private water tanks. They're having it trucked in on private water tanks. And it's just a fact that that $7 that one spent is going to impact you more or less depending on how much money you have.

So it's a combination of where you live, and also how much money you can afford to spend on trucks, private trucks, bringing in water and paying for that.

John Yang:

What are the potential effects on schools, hospitals, homes, what are the people worrying about?

Emily Green:

You know, if you don't have water, you can't flush the toilet, you can't do the dishes, you can't wash clothes. I mean, the list goes on and on. And so, it does have a massive impact. The former chief resilience Officer of Mexico City said that climate change is really the greatest risk to Mexico City. And I think that that is coming to bear right now.

John Yang:

If climate change is the greatest risk, it sounds like there, is there anything anyone can do about this right now?

Emily Green:

Yeah, you can use less water. And I think that there can be measures taken to ensure that individuals use less water but also factories use less water. I think also this issue of the old infrastructures is a really serious one. And I think that steps can be taken to improve the inch — the infrastructure. So I would say it's again, it's there's no silver bullet to what's going on right now. The causes are very varied, and the solutions are also going to be buried.

John Yang:

Has anyone said that if nothing changes, if they predicted when taps are just going to run dry in Mexico City?

Emily Green:

I mean, that's the talk of the town here is what they called day zero and this is the idea that the taps are essentially going to go on completely dry. The date that's being thrown out there as at the end of June. Most of the experts that I talked to say that's unlikely to happen. The reservoirs that supply a great percentage of Mexico City's water, they're not the only source of water. There's also underground aquifers.

So it's unlikely that the city is going to completely run out of water. But this is a very, very, very serious crisis. And it is not as if we know that next year, there's going to be a huge amount of rainfall. So if this drought continues, I don't even want to imagine where we're going to be in a year or two or three.

John Yang:

Emily Green in Mexico City where they're running out of water. Thank you very much.

Emily Green:

Thank you.