Residents queue to collect clean water from a tanker truck in Garcia municipality, northwest of the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico, earlier this month. Photograph: Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP via GettyThe heat is stifling in Jaime Noyola’s modest house in the Mexican industrial hub of Monterrey, but he can’t quench his thirst with a glass of water from the kitchen tap — the supply to his neighbourhood has been cut for 12 hours a day.
As the drought drags on, residents in some parts of Monterrey — especially those living in the city’s poorer fringes in the hills — say the taps have been dry for days at a time. “Two of our dams are in a critical situation; we are practically a couple of days from running out,” Juan Ignacio Barragan, director of Nuevo Leon’s Water and Sewage Institute, said by phone.
Acknowledging public anger over the rationing, he says the state government is looking into alternative water sources, such as deep wells, as well as extending the piped water network and improving infrastructure to prevent leaks and illegal use. “If you compare the quantities [of concessions given to these companies] with the policy of drinking water allocated for domestic users, there is a great inequality,” says Gonzalo Hatch Kuri, professor of geology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who has investigated water inequality.
Where I am is not affected....