Neighbors
wait in
line to
collect
water in
plastic
containers
at a
public
collection
point in
Monterrey,
Mexico,
Monday,
June 20,
2022.
Local
authorities
began
restricting
water
supplies
in
March,
as a
combination
of an
intense
drought,
poor
planning
and high
use has
left the
three
dams
that
help
supply
the city
dried
up, with
thousands
of homes
not
receiving
any
water
for
weeks.
(AP
Photo) |
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Neighbors
wait
with
plastic
containers
in hand
to
collect
water at
a public
collection
point in
Monterrey,
Mexico,
Monday,
June 20,
2022.
Local
authorities
began
restricting
water
supplies
in
March,
as a
combination
of an
intense
drought,
poor
planning
and high
use has
left the
three
dams
that
help
supply
the city
dried
up, with
thousands
of homes
not
receiving
any
water
for
weeks.
(AP
Photo) |
|
Monterrey
suffers
weeks-long
water
cutoff
amid
drought
By
MARCOS
MARTÍNEZ
CHACÓN
apnews.com
MONTERREY,
Mexico -
The
industrial
hub of
Monterrey
has long
been one
of
Mexico’s
most
prosperous
cities,
so its
almost 5
million
residents
were
shocked
when
they
lost the
most
basic of
services:
water.
A
combination
of an
intense
drought,
poor
planning
and high
water
use has
left
residents
of
Mexico’s
industrial
powerhouse
to
resort
to
extreme
measures
that
call up
images
of
isolated,
poorer
areas:
storing
water in
buckets
to use a
scoopful
at a
time.
“We are
panicked,
because
we don’t
know
when the
water
will
come
back
on,”
said
60-year-old
Monterrey
resident
María
del
Carmen
Lara.
“We
finally
got them
to send
us a
water
truck,
but we
still
don’t
have
running
water.”
Local
authorities
began
restricting
water
supplies
in
March,
as the
three
dams
that
help
supply
the city
dried
up. They
currently
hold
only
45%, 2%
and 8%
of their
capacity,
and city
authorities
say the
two
lowest
dams had
only a
few
days’
worth of
water
left.
Earlier
this
month,
they
declared
water
would be
available
only
between
4a.m.
and
10a.m,
recently
extending
the
service
until
11a.m.
But
authorities
haven’t
even
been
able to
supply
that,
and in
thousands
of
homes,
not a
drop has
come out
of
faucets
for
weeks.
Lara and
her
husband
haven’t
had
running
water
for
three
weeks
and
don’t
have
enough
money
for
holding
tanks to
store
any
significant
quantity.
In a
stop-gap
measure,
some of
the
city’s
suburbs
have set
up giant
plastic
water
tanks in
public
squares
for
residents
to fill
containers
with
water.
So on a
recent
hot,
sunny
day,
they
were
busy
dragging
buckets
and bins
to a
water
tank
truck to
fill
them.
Big,
expensive
and
sometimes
corruption-laden
water
management
plans
have
come and
gone,
but the
lack of
long-term
planning
or
conservation
remain.
One
project,
that
would
have
built an
aqueduct
to bring
water
from the
Pánuco
river,
310
miles
(500
kilometers)
away, to
the
city,
which
authorities
at the
time
claimed
would
sure up
the
city’s
water
supplies
for 50
years,
was
dropped
in 2016
because
of
alleged
corruption
in the
granting
of
contracts
by the
previous
administration.
Experts
say it
was
clear to
see the
crisis
coming:
for six
years,
Monterrey,
capital
of Nuevo
León
state,
has
suffered
below-average
rainfall
or
outright
drought.
Set on
an arid
plain
against
the
backdrop
of the
Sierra
Madre
Oriental
mountain
range,
water —
except
for
during
brief,
catastrophic
floods —
has
never
been
abundant
in
Monterrey.
For
decades,
the
state’s
water
planning
essentially
came
down to
waiting
for a
hurricane
in the
Gulf to
swell
local
rivers.
Juan
Ignacio
Barragán,
the
city’s
water
director,
said
Monterrey
has been
hit by a
double
whammy
of
drought
and
higher
temperatures,
which
has
dried up
the
city’s
reserves.
This
May, the
state
reported
its
hottest
ever
average
temperature,
hitting
highs of
104
degrees
(40 C.)
“This is
a
situation
which
has
forced
us to
ration
water,
to be
able to
distribute
it more
equitably
throughout
the
city,”
Barragán
said. He
accused
the
previous
administration,
which
governed
the
state
from
2015 to
2021, of
allowing
water
extraction
from
dams in
high
levels
without
considering
the
impacts
that the
prolonged
drought
had
already
caused
to the
state’s
water
sources.
For a
city
accustomed
to
consuming
4,225
gallons
(16,500
liters)
per
second,
it now
has only
3,435
gallons
(13,000
liters)
per
second
available.
Barragán
said the
city has
begun an
effort
urging
city
residents
to use
less.
Historically,
average
daily
consumption
in
Monterrey
has been
around
160 to
170
liters
(42 to
44
gallons)
per day
per
person,
far
higher
than the
World
Health
Organization’s
recommendation
of
around
100
liters
(26
gallons)
per day.
About
60% of
the
Monterrey’s
water
comes
from
dams,
with the
rest
coming
from
public
wells.
The
state
also has
private
wells,
which
owners,
ranchers
and
businesses
drill
with
strict
limits
on how
much
they can
pump.
But
those
limits
often
appear
to have
been
ignored,
and some
wells
may have
been
drilled
surreptitiously,
according
to state
and
federal
officials.
And it’s
not just
Monterrey.
According
to the
North
American
Drought
Monitor,
a
cooperative
effort
between
drought
experts
in
Canada,
Mexico
and the
United
States,
56% of
Mexico
is
experiencing
some
level of
drought.
All of
Nuevo
León is
either
“abnormally
dry” or
in
drought.
The
natural
weather
phenomenon
La Niña
and
climate
change
may be
factors
in
unseasonably
low
rainfall,
according
to
officials
and
experts.
“For
those
who
don’t
believe
in
climate
change,
here are
the
consequences,”
said
Nuevo
León
Gov.
Samuel
García.
“This is
clearly
the
result
of
climate
change:
a
semi-desert
area
gets
drier.”
Brenda
Sánchez,
a former
official
of the
federal
ministry
of
Environment
and
Natural
Resources
who now
serves
as a
local
legislator
in Nuevo
León
agreed,
saying
that
urgent
action
was
needed
to
combat
the
“real-life
consequences”
of
climate
change.
For now,
the
authorities’
response
to water
shortages
has been
more of
the
same:
dig more
wells,
reservoirs
and
dams. A
fourth
dam is
currently
under
construction
in the
state’s
southeast
and an
aqueduct
to carry
water
from the
El
Cuchillo
dam, the
state’s
largest,
is
planned.
Authorities
are also
looking
to halt
illegal
water
grabs
from
rivers
that
feed the
dams and
have
tried to
get
large
corporate
water
users to
share
some of
their
water
rights
with
city
residents.
Rosario
Álvarez,
an
activist
with the
environmental
group
Pronatura
Noreste,
said the
government’s
plans
are too
little,
too
late.
“The
most
recent
problem
is that
we
haven’t
planned
for a
drought
like the
current
one,”
Alvarez
said.
“We have
had
several
years
with
below-average
rainfall,
we
haven’t
had
hurricanes.”
“What
came
together
was a
lack of
significant
infrastructure,
a lack
of
understanding
of the
characteristics
of the
region
where we
live and
poor
administration
of what
little
water we
have,”
she
said.
Meanwhile,
until
the next
hurricane
streams
up the
Gulf of
Mexico —
and
there
are none
in sight
— anger
is
growing
among
residents
and
street
protest
have
broken
out in
Monterrey.
“We are
fed up,”
said
35-year-old
Mónica
Almaguer,
a
resident
of the
suburb
of San
Nicolas.
“They
haven’t
even
lived up
to the
schedule
in which
they
said
there
would be
water. I
have
gone 35
days
without
water.”
Gabriel
Revillas,
47, who
has also
been
without
water
for
several
days,
filled
up a jug
at a
private
purified
water
supplier.
“The
only
thing we
can do
is pray,
pray for
a
miracle,”
he said.
___
Associated
Press
reporter
Suman
Naishadham
contributed
to this
report
from
Washington,
D.C.
___
Associated
Press
climate
and
environmental
coverage
receives
support
from
several
private
foundations.
See more
about
AP’s
climate
initiative
here.
The AP
is
solely
responsible
for all
content.
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