User talk:Freedomhwa

Water Shortage in Mexico City

Mexico City, Latin America’s largest city, confronts with water shortages and land sinking. Five hundred years ago, it was a compact Aztec citadel set in a broad highland lagoon. But today it is a vast metropolis sprawling across a dried-up lake bed (Gaynor 2004). The overexploitation of subterranean water reserves in Mexico City brought these disasters. Mass urbanization, which has started since the 1950s, started to cause the problem. Movement of massive population demanded more water as well as brand-new buildings, roads in the limited land. Mexican citizens thoughtlessly use their commons, water causing water shortage, land sinking, water-borne diseases, power outages and the threat of riots. Population in Mexico City keeps growing since massive people have migrated to achieve their success in big city in the 1950s. Unfortunately, there is only finite amount of water; so each individual should decrease the per capita share of water. In reality, people, who get richer, consume more and better foods, which require higher amounts of water for individual benefits. “People in Mexico City use the equivalent of one Olympic-sized swimming pool full of water the reservoir underneath Mexico City every minute.” (Gaynor Jun, 01, 2004) However, the city failed to keep pace with demand because the expansion in Mexico City has taken place with little planning in place and regardless of whether or not local and regional water supplies are sufficient to sustain the new suburbs and slums. Without specific plan, Mexico City started overexploiting the subterranean water reservoir. According to the National Water Commission (CNA), a federal body that oversees Mexico's water systems, extraction of water from the underground reserve in the metropolitan area is more than double the rate of replenishment. While there is limited water, as aquifers are depleted, sewage rises and water tables sink. As the ground subsides, the 7,460 miles of underground water pipes are breaking, so 37 percent of the water pumped into the system is lost to leaks. People, who realized throwing away waste to lake costs much cheaper than purifying waste, dump much of the area’s waste water to the lake, which is separated from the densely populated valley only by a dyke. People’s unawareness of polluting leads Sewage pipes’ fracture, releasing sewage that contaminates the aquifers. By not only extracting great amount of water from reservoir, but also releasing pollutants into nature, water that people can use is even more reduced. The tragedy in Mexico City does not end here. “German Martinez Santoyo, the director-general of Water Systems of Mexico City, the city government's water company, says that until now the reservoir acted as a shock absorber in times of seismic activity. The city is now more exposed to structural damage from earthquakes, he says” (Thomson, Mar. 16, 2006).

Citation

Gayner, Tim (2004). Mexico City Faces Water Crisis as Demand Spirals. World Environmental News, Retributed June 01 2004, from http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25337/story.htm

Thomson, Adam (2006 March 16). Raging thirst for water gives Mexicans that sinking feeling, from Acess World News