Mexico City, the most populated city in Latin America, suffers the consequences of drought and a long history of exploitation of its aquifers.
As a result, more than 200 neighborhoods and neighborhoods have experienced cuts or total absence of running water since the beginning of the year.
The protests of those affected, both in the capital and in the metropolitan area, have been increasing and discontent is already affecting the authorities and the candidates for the Head of Government in the upcoming elections on June 2.
Added to this, he raises the specter that the megalopolis could reach
Day Zero
in four months where there will be no water left for anyone, which has set off the alarm bells of President López Obrador himself.
Last week, the president convened a crisis cabinet with senior officials and management officials to resolve the matter.
The success or failure of the plan threatens to turn the issue into a political weapon.
Water does not usually give votes, but it does take them away when there are problems in its supply.
It is paradoxical to think that the capital suffers from these problems, when 500 years ago it was built on an immense lake.
However, over the centuries, the lake was drained and most of the rivers buried so that construction could continue on the surface.
Currently, more than nine million people live in the capital, a figure that rises to 20 million, if the inhabitants of the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico are included.
70% of the supply comes from wells and the other 30%, approximately, is fed by the Cutzamala System, a network of dams that supply the capital from other States.
A recent report from the National Water Commission (Conagua) focused on the low levels that the Cutzamala has been experiencing for three years due to the lack of rain and drought.
The system's dams are at 39% of their capacity and that has forced the authorities to close the tap from time to time.
The water problem not only has to do with climate change, deforestation and the absence of rain.
Also with the overexploitation of the underground aquifer, the immense number of leaks and an obsolete infrastructure that requires urgent reform.
“It is the chronicle of a tragedy foretold,” says Manuel Perló, professor and researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
“Every second in Mexico City, 12,000 liters of water are lost,” he explains.
That is, the equivalent of 865 Olympic swimming pools that are thrown down the drain every day without anyone doing anything.
López Obrador accuses the opposition of wanting to politicize the issue of shortages due to the proximity of the elections and has assured that his Government is working to reverse the situation.
The president has recognized that it is necessary to invest in infrastructure to prevent the problem from continuing to worsen.
The Government of Mexico City invested 17,000 million pesos in this Administration to rehabilitate the Lerma system, parallel to the Cutzamala, and try to control the enormous amount of leaks in the network, however, the effort has not been sufficient.
“An investment of more than 100,000 million additional pesos to the budget is required to solve the problem,” says Perló.
The head of Government, Martí Batres, has assured that water service is guaranteed in the capital in the “short, medium and long term.”
“The sources that Mexico City has are diverse.
It is not one source, there are many and that allows us to ensure the drinking water service for the inhabitants of Mexico City,” he declared this week.
Morena's candidate, Clara Brugada, and Santiago Taboada, candidate of the PRI, PAN, PRD coalition, in an interview with this newspaper, agree that the problem of shortages is a priority that must be addressed and one of the most important issues for the city.
Without delving into their programs due to the electoral ban, both criticize their rival and evade responsibilities, despite the fact that they were both mayors of two of the most important delegations of the capital: Iztapalapa and Benito Juárez, directly affected by the lack of water.
If we win in the next elections, the challenge will be enormous.
“It is an issue that cannot be resolved by a mayor's office alone nor can it be resolved by the city alone, it has to be seen in a metropolitan and megalopolitan way.
It has to become a state policy,” responds the Morena candidate, the party that governs the city.
“The issue of water has many aspects: environmental, inequality, security... The only thing that Morena and the group that has governed the city in these last 27 years has demonstrated is a resounding failure and abandonment because it was not invested or attended to. the problem,” says Taboada.
Both candidates use supply problems as a weapon.
“They are trying to turn water scarcity into political spoils.
It is a lie that the Cutzamala is going to reach zero or that we are not going to have water,” Brugada responds.
Both candidates defend the water management they did during their administration.
“I lived and governed the most water-scarce place in the city and I know what I'm talking about.
I have the experience and I can say that I know what the water problem means,” says the candidate and assures that to solve a titanic problem like this, a medium-term work is needed to guarantee supply in the Valley of Mexico basin.
In this regard, Taboada explains that an increase in supply through treatment and recycling is important and highlights the rainwater harvesting program that the Administration implemented in public buildings.
Experts, for their part, point out that less than 10% of the water in the capital is treated to be reused.
Another serious problem facing the fragile water situation in the capital is the lack of payment for services.
Only around 20% of users pay water rights for domestic use, which has burdened Sacmex, the public water company in the capital, with a huge deficit in its accounts.
“Water charging has to be done in a better way, today there is poor charging that impacts finances, investment and many people are even charged for a service that does not arrive,” adds Taboada.
“We have to rethink the service.
All efforts, whether with public-private management, development banks... that allow investment in water for the city must be done,” he continues.
His opponent agrees on the need to clean up the public company's finances.
“Water charges have to be made more efficient, but not increased.
For me, water is a human right and everything must be done to guarantee that all people in the city have it,” adds Brugada.
While water continues to reach some parts of the city in dribs and drabs, authorities call on the population to avoid waste.
Sacmex has developed a platform called 'Water in your neighborhood' that notifies neighbors when and at what time there will be outages and when the service will return.
Some fear that the situation will continue and have begun to store water in tanks or buy bottled water.
The water market has also increased, theft with clandestine taps like huachicol and the demand for pipes and tanker trucks has grown by 30% in recent months in several municipalities.
“If the water does not arrive before June, the issue is going to be very hot,” warns Perló about the electoral implications of the shortage.
The specialist assures, however, that the so-called
Day Zero,
scheduled three weeks after the election, is unlikely to arrive.
“We are very far from reaching
Day Zero
, but we have to take responsibility for the wrong decisions,” he says.
Perló focuses on a problem that goes beyond the current political situation.
“We must face the mismanagement of recent decades that has prevented us from having a good water and sanitation system,” he concludes.
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