Hong Kong decades ago
Even a Dry Sense of Humor Won’t Help
Cape Town, Mendocino, and Now Mexico City
They’re notifying people in Beverly Hills, you can only use 40 gallons of water. They don’t have water… And it’s true: in Beverly Hills, you pay a fortune in taxes, they say you can only brush your teeth once a day.”
Donald Trump at CPAC, February 24th.
Other than Dallas, Texas has higher property taxes than does Beverly Hills, and Beverly Hills absolutely never sent anything remotely like such a notice – water is very available – this little “fake news” is telling in that water shortages are becoming a major political topic these days. I remember visiting Hong Kong as a young teenager decades ago. There were no water pipe connections from mainland China, and as local springs were hardly enough to sate that growing city’s water needs, the abundance of tropic rainstorms, including typhoons, made rooftop cisterns a common necessity (see above picture). Except for the chichi upscale hotels, there was severe water rationing – toilets got pretty skanky mid-afternoon – and people lived with it. In Santa Fe County, NM, many new builds today come with the requirement of rain-capture into cisterns, most of which are underground. This is a story that will repeat itself many times in the coming years.
Despite atmospheric rivers descending over much of California recently – remembering that a single aerial river typically contains five times the water of the entire Mississippi River – there are still water shortfalls here and across the West. Two years ago, Mendocino, CA literally ran out of water. Hotels, inns and restaurants built cisterns and purchased water by the truckload. Cape Town, South Africa, was down to a trickle… and bottled water was lifesaver for that modern city. A few rainstorms later provided a temporary respite from a repeat performance.
But one of the largest metropolitan centers on earth, 22 million people representing literally 20% of Mexico’s population, is literally on the verge of running out of water. Taps are already running dry. For those without enough money to buy and store needed water… or even buy bottled water, Mexico is rapidly becoming an intolerable hellhole. The February 25th CNN News shares some history about this massive urban sprawl: “Densely populated Mexico City stretches out across a high-altitude lake bed, around 7,300 feet above sea level. It was built on clay-rich soil — into which it is now sinking — and is prone to earthquakes and highly vulnerable to climate change. It’s perhaps one of the last places anyone would choose to build a megacity today… The Aztecs chose this spot to build their city of Tenochtitlan in 1325, when it was a series of lakes. They built on an island, expanding the city outwards, constructing networks of canals and bridges to work with the water.
“But when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, they tore down much of the city, drained the lakebed, filled in canals and ripped out forests. They saw ‘water as an enemy to overcome for the city to thrive,’ said Jose Alfredo Ramirez, an architect and co-director of Groundlab, a design and policy research organization… Their decision paved the way for many of Mexico City’s modern problems. Wetlands and rivers have been replaced with concrete and asphalt. In the rainy season, it floods. In the dry season, it’s parched.
“Around 60% of Mexico City’s water comes from its underground aquifer, but this has been so over-extracted that the city is sinking at a frightening rate — around 20 inches a year, according to recent research. And the aquifer is not being replenished anywhere near fast enough. The rainwater rolls off the city’s hard, impermeable surfaces, rather than sinking into the ground...
“The rest of the city’s water is pumped vast distances uphill from sources outside the city, in an incredibly inefficient process, during which around 40% of the water is lost through leaks…. Around 60% of Mexico is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, according to a February report. Nearly 90% of Mexico City is in severe drought — and it’s set to get worse with the start of the rainy season still months away.” City planners have reassured local residents that “day zero” will not come… but too many locals, with dry taps, just do not believe them.
Mexico as a whole has been plagued by seriously rising temperatures. Last summer, over 200 people died from that severe heat. The United States has sucked out so much of the Colorado River that by the time it seeps into Mexico, there is almost nothing left. With dry season a month away, no one expects the situation to improve. Especially in Mexico City.
“The result is that residents in Mexico City have taken to the streets, calling for action. In late January, Reuters reported that residents forced open the gates of Mexico's National Water Commission, damaging property… Their actions came after severe water restrictions were placed on Mexico City residents. Maribel Gutierrez told Reuters that she had gone over a month without water at her residence prior to the massive protest… ‘I think they should be empathetic,’ Gutierrez told Reuters of government officials. ‘We understand there was a serious water problem, but they must understand that water is vital for everyone.’” Scripps News/Reuters, February 26th.
This tale will only grow more frequent, all over the earth. As flooding reaches new levels of disaster in some parts of the world, wildfires and severe drought (compounded by the severe depletion of underground water everywhere) are an elsewhere increasing newfound global misery, which impacts impoverished people so much more. Food prices will continue to soar, parts of the earth will become uninhabitable, and life will be an increasing struggle for all forms of life.
I’m Peter Dekom, and Mother Nature (expressed by the laws of physics) really does not care that climate change deniers and marginalizers will not take steps to contain and reverse the destruction created by the massive accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions above us; she’s coming for all of us.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment