Friday, March 24, 2017

Hurting for water in Mexico City

This is a fascinating look at how Mexico City manages (or mismanages) its water supply.  It shows how current situations of high population, environmental damage, water scarcity, economic trends, housing scarcity, challenges in urban planning, can all be exacerbated by climate change.

When I hear about the difficult situation of many dwellers of Mexico City who have to spend much of their time searching or waiting for water, it really shocks me.  Right now Mexico is doing relatively well economically, and Mexico City should be at the heart of this prosperity, the place where wellbeing tends to be highest as compared to rural areas or smaller cities.  In fact, things are so good right now in Mexico that migration to the US has essentially stopped; my understanding is that more Mexicans are leaving the US every year than are entering it.  If despite all this, there are still a lot of people in Mexico City itself who are living in pretty desperate conditions, it bodes ill for the current model of economic development.  If even those living in the epicenter of economic growth in a relatively prosperous country are hard up to get a basic necessity like water, then I can't even imagine the situation for people in rural Mexico, much less Honduras or Bolivia or Burundi, all countries much less prosperous than Mexico.

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