<
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-14/mexico-city-day-zero-never-came-how-the-city-avoided-running-out-of-water>
"As severe drought parched the Valley of Mexico earlier this year, news outlets
began a countdown to a total failure of the water system. Reservoirs more than
100 kilometers away from Mexico City were at dangerously low levels and some
areas already were facing acute shortages. Tanker trucks loaded with potable
water sloshed down residential avenues to deliver emergency supplies.
Without ample rain, “Day Zero” would theoretically arrive in June. But that
darkest fear of urban planners, politicians, residents and academics never came
to pass. How did one of the world's largest cities avert all-out disaster?
What saved the metropolitan area’s 22 million residents from a calamitous
water-system collapse was a combination of just-in-time rainfall, urgent
political pressure and underground reserves that saw the city through the
worst. The drawn-out crisis vaulted the region’s aging infrastructure to
television screens and newspaper front pages, spurring everyday chilangos — as
capital dwellers are known — to wonder if years of neglect and indifference by
politicians would change.
“The model of water management in Mexico City is no longer functioning, and
it’s important that we think of long-term solutions,” said Rodrigo Gutiérrez
Rivas, a researcher focused on constitutional and water rights at the National
Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM. “Water became one of the main issues
during the campaign cycle and now that it's won by a wide margin, the
government of Mexico City has a huge opportunity to transform the model.”"
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-mexico-city-water-crisis-solutions/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
