• One of the world's biggest cities may be just months away from running

    From Over Breeding@21:1/5 to All on Mon Feb 26 06:35:57 2024
    XPost: alt.society.liberalism, talk.politics.guns, talk.politics.misc

    Alejandro Gomez has been without proper running water for more than three months. Sometimes it comes on for an hour or two, but only a small
    trickle, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then nothing for many
    days.

    Gomez, who lives in Mexico City’s Tlalpan district, doesn’t have a big
    storage tank so can’t get water truck deliveries — there’s simply nowhere
    to store it. Instead, he and his family eke out what they can buy and
    store.

    When they wash themselves, they capture the runoff to flush the toilet.
    It’s hard, he told CNN. “We need water, it’s essential for everything.”

    Water shortages are not uncommon in this neighborhood, but this time feels different, Gomez said. “Right now, we are getting this hot weather. It’s
    even worse, things are more complicated.”

    Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 22 million people and one of
    the world’s biggest cities, is facing a severe water crisis as a tangle of problems — including geography, chaotic urban development and leaky infrastructure — are compounded by the impacts of climate change.

    Years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods and high temperatures
    have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with
    increased demand. Authorities have been forced to introduce significant restrictions on the water pumped from reservoirs.

    “Several neighborhoods have suffered from a lack of water for weeks, and
    there are still four months left for the rains to start,” said Christian Domínguez Sarmiento, an atmospheric scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

    Politicians are downplaying any sense of crisis, but some experts say the situation has now reached such critical levels that Mexico City could be barreling towards “day zero” in a matter of months — where the taps run
    dry for huge swaths of the city.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/25/climate/mexico-city-water-crisis-climate- intl/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From 61h.1601@21:1/5 to Over Breeding on Mon Feb 26 19:50:01 2024
    XPost: alt.society.liberalism, alt.politics, talk.politics.misc

    On 2/26/24 12:35 AM, Over Breeding wrote:
    Alejandro Gomez has been without proper running water for more than three months. Sometimes it comes on for an hour or two, but only a small
    trickle, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then nothing for many days.

    Gomez, who lives in Mexico City’s Tlalpan district, doesn’t have a big storage tank so can’t get water truck deliveries — there’s simply nowhere
    to store it. Instead, he and his family eke out what they can buy and
    store.

    When they wash themselves, they capture the runoff to flush the toilet. It’s hard, he told CNN. “We need water, it’s essential for everything.”

    Water shortages are not uncommon in this neighborhood, but this time feels different, Gomez said. “Right now, we are getting this hot weather. It’s even worse, things are more complicated.”


    First off, the world is absolutely overflowing with 50 gallon
    plastic barrels that didn't have anything TOO toxic in them
    and can be flushed and re-used for home water storage as needed.
    You've seen the things - big blue heavy-duty plastic. Food
    industries might get stuff like olive oil in those quantities.
    Re-packagers might get in liquid soap in these, to be put into
    for home/biz-sized dispensers.

    Also, an impromptu tank, wood+rope or mud-bricks or whatever
    lined with a plastic tarp could hold 100 gallons or more.
    Just cover it so malaria mosquitoes don't breed. I've seen
    stuff like this set up in big hobo camps - one even had
    a shower.

    That said, resources in Mexico City DO get short sometimes.
    The city is in a quasi-arid inland area. It does get rain and
    the nearby hills tend to catch that and there are even little
    forest reserves, but given the sheer size of the population
    that water might not last very long.

    The Las Vegas area in the USA has a similar problem, but is
    in an even more arid environment. It's population keeps
    growing and they have to pipe-in water from long distances.
    I think during last summer's heat wave they had to truck
    in some water. (oddly, when it DOES rain it can horribly
    flood everything - I've seen pix of really heavy-duty
    drainage infrastructure)

    (removed guns group because this has nothing to do
    with shooting anything/anybody)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)