Tip Sheets
Mexico City runs short on water — a public good that’s ‘increasingly difficult’ to provide
February 27, 2024
Media Contact
Mexico City is facing a serious water shortage as leaky pipes, rapid development and climate change converge — stirring a debate over whether the city will reach a point at which it’s unable to provide any water, known as “day zero.”
Victoria Beard
Professor of City and Regional Planning, director of the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities
Victoria Beard is a professor of city and regional planning and director of the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities. Beard studies how planners address urban inequality and poverty, with a focus on water access and sanitation. She says more cities will face “day zero” scenarios as urban water gets “increasingly difficult” to provide.
Beard says:
“Water sources are depleted around the world due to the combination of climate change, urban population growth and changes to the natural and built environments. Every year, more cities will face ‘day zero’ with no water in their piped systems.
“Already, many urban households in the global south experience ‘day zero’ on a regular basis because piped water service is intermittent. No matter the cause of water intermittency, when pressure drops in a piped water system, contamination from sewage, groundwater, surface water and other sources enters the system.
“Urban water provision is a public good in the broadest sense, but one that will become increasingly difficult for cities and water utilities to provide. Solutions to the urban water crisis are well-known and not technologically advanced, but they are elusive to cities, nonetheless.”
