“It’s the biggest problem we have,” explains Hernández, who has lived in Rancho el Chicote for 20 years, commenting on the lack of tap water. Hernández, his wife and his two daughters consume about 6,000 liters (1,585 gallons) of trucked water per month, he says, which costs about 2,000 pesos ($116). The average American family consumes more than five times more water per month, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but pays less, even though incomes are much lower in Mexico.
“Every year it’s the same…some politicians come and promise you something and nothing changes,” adds Hernández.
Even in middle-class neighborhoods, like the one where housewife Martha Muñoz lives in south Tijuana, another area that is growing rapidly, neighbors have to communicate via WhatsApp to find out about possible service outages and coordinate requests to the city authorities when interrupted.
“The state government is making significant investments to solve this problem, but it takes time,” says Muñoz. “Meanwhile, we suffer every time there is a leak… because they leave us without water for five days.”
That’s what happened in April, when more than 600 neighborhoods across the city, more than half, were left without water while the Tijuana State Public Services Commission (CESPT) repaired leaks in a primary pipeline.
For some, that power outage lasted days longer than the official estimate of 36 hours. Authorities admitted that given the size of the affected area, they were unable to send enough water trucks to many neighborhoods.
“They leave people without water for too long,” says José Manuel Pérez Reyes, who distributes water by truck. He adds that the government sometimes tells residents that the shutdowns are to fix pipes when the truth is simply that there isn’t enough water.
According to CESPT, even for its 700,000 customers who are connected to the city’s water system, the taps often run dry, forcing them to also pay for private water delivery by truck.
Carlos de la Parra, a water consultant and former professor of urban and environmental studies at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, has studied water issues in northwestern Mexico for decades. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole in terms of trying to see where things are going to appear next,” says de la Parra, alluding to the game where the user uses a large, smooth, black mallet to hit some moles of plastic sticking out of five random holes in a board.
Water utilities are having a hard time keeping up with Tijuana’s growth, stresses de la Parra, along with an 8-10 year infrastructure neglect.
And above all there are droughts. Nationwide, more than 44% of Mexico’s municipalities suffered from drought in May, according to Mexico’s National Water Commission. Tijuana’s challenges are acute, as it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and in one of the most water-scarce states in Mexico.
Despite the daily fights for water in the city, the person in charge of operating the water service in Tijuana, Víctor Amador, denied that the taps run dry except when there is work on the pipes.
“At the moment, we have no problems. At the moment, we have enough water”, assures Amador.
However, that was not the case in January, when Tijuana shut down a main water main for work and had to order about 540 acre-feet (650 million liters) of emergency water from the neighboring US city of San Diego. .
The water—available in times of urgency, but accounted for against Mexico’s share of Colorado River water—then traveled through the gigantic aqueducts of southern California and across the US-Mexico border. Such emergency water transfers have been going on for more than 50 years, reports the San Diego County Water Authority, and have been needed every year since 2018 except for one.
More than 90% of Tijuana’s water comes from the Colorado River, which must be diverted west through the state of Baja California and over a 4,000-foot (1,219-meter) mountain pass via a single aqueduct that is often under repair . In the last two years, Mexico’s share of the Colorado River’s water has been cut by 7%, and while those cuts have yet to affect Tijuana, hydrologists and policy experts emphasize that that city and the state of Baja California needs to secure other water sources, and soon.
Despite years of promises from federal, state and city officials to diversify Tijuana’s water supply through resources such as ocean water desalination and wastewater treatment, the city has little concrete to show for it. Amador said that the government is working to develop both mechanisms.
“We are in this drought as if nothing was happening,” warns Manuel Becerra, a Tijuana-based water consultant and former superintendent of public services for the city.
Part of the challenge for Tijuana’s aging infrastructure is the layout of the city: water is pumped up and down steep hills and canyons to reach urban developments that have sprawled in all directions as the city has grown: 19% since 2010. Then there is the 7% of water that Tijuana is estimated to lose due to leaks, according to CESPT.
“The topography of the area requires that there be pumping and re-pumping of water,” says Becerra. “Sometimes, even though there is water, the pump fails, the power fails or the pipe breaks. So, the service is interrupted.”
On his fifth stop after refueling his tanker, the driver, Ramírez, descends a steep gravel road to enter a neighborhood of about 100 houses that are not connected to the city’s water network. He stops in front of a gray two-story cinder-block house where retired bricklayer José Trinidad and his wife live. After receiving the water in a tank, they transfer it in buckets for bathing, cleaning and cooking.
Trinidad explains that each month she spends about 1,600 pesos (around $91) on water. It is his strongest monthly expense, after food.
“We spend a lot. It’s hard, but we have to endure”, says Trinidad. “There is no other.”
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Associated Press cameraman Jordi Lebrija contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for news coverage on water and environmental policies. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FUENTE: Associated Press
