A devastating water shortage in Mexico City, Mexico, may result in the entire city running out of water by the time the summer rolls around. Nearly 22 million people live in Mexico City, making it one of the largest cities in the world by population.

One Mexico City resident, Alejandro Gomez, told CNN that his family has been without proper running water for more than three months now.

Gomez’s family doesn’t have a storage tank for water, so water truck deliveries won’t be much help for them. They are forced to scrounge for water wherever they can. Water is reused whenever possible. The water used for bathing is captured to ensure there is enough water to flush the toilet.

Christian Dominguez Sarmiento, an atmospheric researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, commented on the crisis. Sarmiento emphasized how the worst may be yet to come.

A World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas report released in 2023 detailed the extent of water shortages across the world. Nearly one-quarter of people on the planet are faced with extreme water stress that is only set to get worse.

The World Resources Institute estimates that the demand for water is more than twice as high today as it was in 1960. Earth’s population has increased substantially, but it’s not just humans who are drinking it. To support human populations, companies have expanded agriculture and livestock fields, which need water to support them.

The World Resources Insitute predicts that by 2050, nearly 1 billion people on the planet will be living under constant high water stress.

Mexico City was originally built on a series of lakes and canals by the Aztecs in 1325. The lake and waterways were stripped by the Spanish when they arrived in the Americas during the 16th century. The Spanish saw the abundance of water standing in the way of the city’s development, which is ironic, given the city’s current situation.

The decision to destroy the lakebed and canals of the city has proven to have far-reaching consequences centuries later. According to CNN, around 60% of Mexico City’s water has to come from a single underground aquifer. This aquifer has been over-extracted, thanks to increasing water demand over the years.

Because of the draining of their underground aquifer, the city itself is sinking at a rapid rate of 20 inches per year, according to research published in JGR Solid Earth.

Mexico’s national water commission, Conagua, announced in October that it would be restricting water from Mexico’s Cutzamala water system by 8% in preparation for the coming droughts. However, the supplies of that water system have reportedly hit a historic low. According to CNN, it is only at about 39% capacity.

Residents in Mexico City are wary of the approach of “Day Zero,” a day that may occur soon when the water taps of their city officially run dry.

Extreme water shortages are often outside the possibility of human control. Climate change has been a major contributor to water shortages across the world. 

Climate change is when there is a long-term shift in the Earth’s climate and weather conditions. One hypothesis or theory is that human-driven actions are causing destructive changes in the long-term climate of the Earth.

A greenhouse gas is any gas emission that contributes to what is called the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a phenomenon where certain gases get “trapped” as they ascend into the atmosphere of the earth.

Because the temperature of the Earth is rising across the board, this results in increased evaporation and a host of other problems that can cause water shortages.

Another downstream effect of increased evaporation is that the soil and earth in an area can become dried out.

Another big contributor to water shortages from climate change is the melting of permafrost. As snowy tundra areas of the Earth start to melt, the permafrost underneath the ground melts as well. 

According to the National Library of Medicine, melting permafrost is also a contributor to coastal erosion.

As land erodes into the sea via the process of coastal erosion, this leads to a mixing of surface water and saltwater.

Coastal erosion is another consequence of climate change. Rising global temperatures will cause sea levels to rise, leading to increased wave activity, storms, and other effects that will increase the amount of rocks and earth carried away from the land.

Climate change and increased global temperatures will cause large sheets of ice in the extreme regions of the planet to start to melt faster than they can be replenished. As these sheets of ice melt they are incorporated into the world’s oceans.

In 2022, researchers estimated that the global average sea level hit a new record high. The average global sea level is now at the highest level since scientists have been using satellite records to record the sea levels.

While people experiencing water shortages may be wishing for storms to come visit them, people have to be careful what they wish for.