Comments on: Drought affects just over 70% of Mexico’s territory

By: El Chapulin - casAgua

El Chapulin - casAgua — Sat, 25 May 2024 00:39:25 +0000

Peter Larson, I agree solar / wind powered desalination plants would be a nice option for coastal areas, however for CDMX? To do desalination at sea level, and pump the water 2,300 m up to CDMX? A simple calculation: to pump the missing 25 m3/s, considering pump efficiency, pipe friction, would take ca. 1,000 MW = 1 GW shaft power of all pumps together. Can you imagine the absurd size of power stations to produce this?
(and yes, I am a hydraulic engineer)

By: Steve Nelson

Steve Nelson — Fri, 24 May 2024 18:42:07 +0000

As I was reading your article, I look out of the window and saw my neighbor was washing his cars

By: Peter Larson

Peter Larson — Fri, 24 May 2024 18:08:38 +0000

The handwriting is on the wall for Mexico’s water supply, yet you hear virtually nothing (despite Mexico’s nearly 6,000 miles of coastline) about building desalination plants. I find this astounding!

By: El Chapulin - casAgua

El Chapulin - casAgua — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:36:19 +0000

Allow me to contribute a few facts: CDMX currently extracts double (!) the groundwater volume of what is recharged. Therefore, the groundwater level sinks at 1,5 m/yr., with a max. of 6 m/yr. in a specific basin. The wells have to be constantly drilled deeper, some already over 1000m deep, and at enormous pumping cost we find water of increasingly poor quality, posing major challenges for treatment. At the same time, surface water reserves (Cutzamala, Lerma) are dwindling. In a word, CDMX (and many other parts of the country) is far from hydrological sustainability, and extensive measures in groundwater management, water recycling, and water conservation will be required to emerge from the crisis. It must be considered counterproductive to spread word about miraculous reserves that are not yet being used.

By: Caguichie

Caguichie — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:13:12 +0000

¡Mamá Mía! We have 14 varieties of fruit trees, 80 in all located in Michoacan and we have no water to maintain them! Breaking my heart to see all of them dying after more than 30 years of tending them! Our rancho hardly has enough water to run the pump one hour every other day! The rain can’t come early enough!

By: Nick R

Nick R — Thu, 23 May 2024 19:40:17 +0000

In reply to US.

This is from a recent article on the subject: “Experts consulted said it’s unlikely that the city will reach the critical point at which the water supply is completely depleted. Even if the drought persists and the reservoirs dry up, the city still has enough underground water reserves.” It sounds like there’s no risk of running out of water in the short to medium-term, that’s all I’m saying.

By: US

US — Wed, 22 May 2024 14:53:52 +0000

In reply to Nick R.

What underground reserves are you referring to?

The city sank into the aquifer a long time ago and is still doing so.

By: Nick R

Nick R — Wed, 22 May 2024 06:36:22 +0000

It’s strange that so many news outlets claimed “day zero” meant CDMX would totally run out of water, when really it refers to the Cutzamala system potentially running dry (which supplies 25% of the water). But the city’s underground reserves could completely make up the shortfall if that happened, right? Reduced rainfall is obviously a problem for the long term, but the fear-mongering and misinformation on this issue has been astounding!