What will Mexico City do when its water taps run dry?
Water shortages are becoming a way of life in cities across the globe — Los Angeles; Cape Town, South Africa; Jakarta, Indonesia; and many more — as climate change worsens and authorities often pipe in water from ever-more-distant sources. “Water sources are depleted around the world,” said Victoria Beard, a professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University. “Every year, more cities will face ‘Day Zero,’ with no water in their piped systems.” Mexico City — founded by the Aztecs on an island amid lakes, with a rainy season that brought torrents and flooding — might have been an exception. For decades, the focus has been getting rid of water, not capturing it. But a grim convergence of factors — including runaway growth, official indifference, faulty infrastructure, rising temperatures and reduced rainfall — have left this mega-city at a tipping point after years of mostly unheeded warnings.