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Mexico City (also) faces water cuts: "If we already don't have it, now we have less"

2022-08-17T10:49:49.654Z


The reduction in the supply of the liquid in 12 municipalities of the capital complicates areas that were already suffering from shortages


Humberto Reyes turns on the tap in his house and not a single drop of water comes out.

The man is not scared: "It has been like this for a long time, but every year we are worse."

Reyes is 79 years old and has lived since he was born in the upper part of the Iztapalapa mayor's office, in the Santa Maria Aztahuacan neighborhood.

50 years ago, he says, when there were almost no houses in that area, the water ran more or less frequently, but "much more than now."

After the 1985 earthquake, the site was filled with homes and since then, this resource has become a precious commodity.

Reyes' house, like many out there, is hardly connected to the city's water system anymore.

They supply themselves from a tank that they fill with pipes distributed by the local Administration.

When it runs out, he will have to go to a stand about 10 blocks from his home to line up so they can take him back.

Mexico is going through one of the worst droughts in recent years.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) declared the emergency situation last July, when the country had already reached some painful figures: seven out of 10 municipalities did not have the amount of liquid they needed.

In this context, Mexico City has not been the exception.

Despite the feeling that the rainfall has come like every year, it rains less and dams and aquifers do not recover desirable levels.

Due to the above, the authorities of the capital have announced a cut in the supply in 12 of the 16 municipalities as of this week.

Since Monday, 6.2% less water has reached the vast majority of neighborhoods, due to the lack of rain and "the low levels" of the Cutzamala system dams, which supplies almost a third of the Valley of Mexico, the metropolitan area of ​​the city.

"This reduction will be reflected in less pressure," explains the official statement.

The lack of rain is one of the biggest problems this year.

According to the figures released by Conagua this Tuesday, so far this year it has rained 8.4% less than the historical average throughout the country.

This has led to 20% of Mexico's dams being less than half full.

In addition, in the Cutzamala system there is 20% less than the historical average, which is why the authorities of the capital have called for "efficient use" of the resource.

The faucet of an empty community water tank, in a park in the Santa María Aztahuacán neighborhood. Quetzalli Nicte Ha

Iztapalapa, which was already badly affected by the lack of water, is now on the list of those that will receive less until further notice.

At the stand where Reyes asks for his pipes there was a constant flow of people this Tuesday who were going to request theirs.

Marta Maldonado, the employee who attends the table, says that "for today" they ran out.

Only in that position they delivered 19,000 liters to the neighbors who came.

Together with the other two posts, they distributed more than 45,000 liters in one day.

"Tomorrow they will bring me more," says the mayor's office worker, who writes down the pending orders for Wednesday.

In general, they must sign up and wait up to three days for the water to reach their home.

Aurora Trujillo went there on Monday, but there were no more.

She also lives with her family in the upper area of ​​Iztapalapa, and in her house her key has not delivered anything for years.

"They say they are going to reduce the supply, but what are they going to reduce if it doesn't even come out here!" She comments with an already normalized indignation.

"What does continue to arrive without fail is the bill, every month we have to pay it without fail, even if we don't have any water," she adds.

Her family pays around 140 pesos every two months for a service that she does not have.

"It's amazing what happens here."

The position of the pipes at times becomes tense.

The neighbors come to claim the water they requested a few days ago and it still hasn't arrived.

Next to the table, a group of women has come to wash clothes in public laundries, where the water is communal.

Lilia Hernández, 62, assures that she goes there to save the liquid that she has in her house.

She is one of the lucky ones in the area, because in her case the tap delivers a timid but continuous stream.

She is afraid that her cut leaves her without that benefit.

"I don't know what we would do, because there are many people who don't have any, it would make the situation very difficult."

Humberto Reyes, a resident of Santa María Aztahuacán, opens a tap that has not delivered water for years.

Quetzalli Nicte Ha

18 kilometers from Iztapalapa, in the Benito Juárez mayor's office, one of the middle-class areas of the city, a group of neighbors has the same problem.

Since May of this year they have received almost no water from the public system.

María Eugenia Saavedra, a 54-year-old resident of the Del Valle neighborhood, says that they have organized to buy a pipe every day to supply the 24 apartments in her building.

“We have had months that we paid 1,500 pesos for water for two people,” she says on the phone.

Ella Saavedra acknowledges that they can pay for it, but she reproaches: "It is an expense that we should not be doing, the water should be guaranteed by the city government."

To save on pipes, this building has established common use hours.

When those hours are over, the tap is closed and the water runs out.

In that area of ​​Benito Juárez, also affected by the new cuts, traditionally there were houses with one family.

But after the real estate boom, says Saavedra, "buildings with 45 apartments were filled, and that can complicate supply."

The reduction comes at a time when the situation is already critical in that corner of the city: "It was what we lacked, if we already don't have it, now less."

What will continue to arrive at her house, as well as at the Iztapalapa neighbor Aurora Trujillo, will be the invoice.

"It's incredible that they keep charging us when the water doesn't come out."

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-08-17

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