A Thirsty Mexico City Is Fast Approaching ‘Day Zero’ for a Total Collapse of Its Water Delivery System

Mexican authorities are warning that Mexico City and the surrounding regions are rapidly running out of water, and are fast approaching what is being called “day zero” of the collapse of the city’s complex water delivery system, a situation that could potentially leave nearly 22 million people without water for months unless drastic measures to address the problem are taken.

Typically, roughly sixty percent of Mexico City’s water is drawn from local aquifers, but due to the aforementioned heat, drought and the inability of the soil to absorb water due to urban sprawl, that groundwater supply is rapidly dwindling.

“We’re extracting water at twice the speed that the aquifer replenishes. This is causing damages to infrastructure, impacts on the water system and ground subsidence,” according to Jorge Alberto Arriaga, the coordinator of the water network for the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The draw from this groundwater source has been so heavy over the decades that the ground covering it has been sinking at a rate of roughly 51 centimeters per year (20 inches) since 1950.

The remaining forty percent of Mexico City’s water is pumped uphill from the surrounding region’s rivers, with the largest such network being the Cutzamala System. However, it is estimated that approximately 40 percent of the water is leaking out of the infrastructure of these systems before it reaches its destination. And due to drought the Cutzamala System itself doesn’t have access to enough water to run at capacity to begin with, having been reduced to a little under 40 percent of its full capacity by the end of January 2024, less than three-quarters of the amount it was pumping a year prior.

Along with improvements being made to the wastewater treatment system, officials have announced that more wells will be dug around the city to address the problem; However, with the rains typically brought by monsoon season still not due until May or June, it remains to be seen whether or not these measures will be enough to ward off the shortfall of water.

“We have to consider that ‘day zero’ is now, because the rivers are contaminated, the springs are overexploited, this is what we must understand,” warns water management consultant José Antonio Rodríguez Tirado, who was acting as an advisor to Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies regarding the crisis.