MEXICO CITY (AP) – Roaming above her neighborhood in a cable car on a recent morning, Sonia Estefanía Palacios Díaz scanned a sea of blue and black water tanks, pipes and cables looking for rain collection systems.
“There’s one!” she said, pointing to a black tank connected to a smaller blue unit with connecting tubes leading up to the roof where water is collected.
“I’m always looking for different rainwater harvesting systems,” she said with a laugh. “I’m always looking for places to install one.”
Driven by a prolonged drought and inconsistent public water delivery, many residents in Mexico City are turning to rainwater. Pioneering company Isla Urbana, which does both non-profit and for-profit work, has installed more than 40,000 rainwater catchment systems throughout Mexico since the company was founded 15 years ago. And the government of Mexico City has invested in the installation of 70,000 systems since 2019, still a drop in the bucket for the sprawling city of about 9 million.
But there is little education and limited resources to maintain the systems after installation, resulting in the systems not being used or residents selling the parts.
Enter Palacios Díaz and a group of other women who make up the cooperative Pixcatl, which means water harvest in the Native Nahuatl language.
In low-income areas like Iztapalapa—Mexico City’s most populous borough—the group tries to keep systems running and educate residents on how to maintain them. That includes brainstorming their own designs and providing residents with low-cost options for additional materials.
Palacios Díaz has lived with water shortages in Iztapalapa for as far back as she can remember. “Here, people will be coming in starting at 3 in the morning to get water (from distribution trucks) until 2 in the afternoon,” she said from her mother’s house. “There was a time when we went for more than a month without a regular supply of water.”
Earlier this year, the reservoirs that supply the capital were extremely low. The authorities reduced the amount of water being released and neighborhoods not used to water shortages faced a new reality.
Going into the rainy season, most of Mexico was in moderate to severe drought. Mexico’s reservoirs are starting to approach half their capacity, but they are far from full, according to recent reports from the National Water Commission.
The country relies on the rains – which usually arrive in October – to fill the reservoirs, but the drought has drawn them so low that it could take years.
That inspired many Mexicans like Palacios Díaz to take up rainwater harvesting.
At the height of the pandemic, she taught classes on urban farming and water harvesting at a local community space. It wasn’t until her students said they wanted to learn how to install and understand their own systems that she seriously considered taking a government course. After enrolling in a training program in 2022 to become an installer, she met other young women from the city who are interested in water harvesting systems and they formed a cooperative.
Near the skirt of a volcano on the edge of Iztapalapa, Lizbeth Esther Pineda Castro, another member of the cooperative, and Palacios Díaz used a ladder to reach the roof of a small house. The two-story house inherited by Sara Huitzil Morales and her niece is located in the Buenavista neighborhood of Iztapalapa.
Huitzil’s mother qualified for a free water collection system from the Mexico City government in 2021. After the installation, Huitzil requested Pixcatl maintenance since she was not sure how to take care of the system.
Using their navy blue polos with the Pixcatl logo, Pineda and Palacios Díaz cleared debris from the roof so that the system collects only fresh rain.
“We also add a little soap and chlorine to clean the pipes,” Palacios Díaz said as she swept the liquid down a connecting tube leading to the safety system.
Downstairs, they joined the other members of the cooperative in a courtyard to look at the huge 2,500-liter water tank, enough to meet Huitzil’s needs for several months when filled. The giant container was almost as tall as Palacios Díaz. Clean another cooperative member filter leaves and dirt.
Finally, Palacios Díaz put in a few chlorine pills to clean and disinfect the water. The frequency of the entire maintenance process depends on several factors, including how much water is in the tank, how much has been used, and whether it has been raining.
Huitzil said before the harvesting system, she suffered water shortages and rationing. Publicly available water was consistently dirty and “dark like chocolate.” She often used the water left over from washing to clean the yard. the bottom, using the clean for a shower.
The system has changed her daily water usage, and she doesn’t have to think twice about whether it’s safe. The system initially uses six filters, plus three more if the water is to be used for drinking.
“The water is good, it is so good!” Huitzil said, “My clothes come out very clean and the water is sweet. You can even harvest it to be cleaner to drink.”
With more than 1.8 million residents, Iztapalapa is one of the primary beneficiaries of Mexico City’s harvest system program. But after two years, the city stopped giving away free systems when many residents, who were facing economic hardship and sometimes struggling to maintain the systems, sold their parts.
“It should be easy to maintain, but it is tedious,” said Palacios Diaz. “Unfortunately, we are in a situation where we have not only environmental problems, but economic problems.”
Loreta Castro Reguera, professor of architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, focuses much of her work on water and urban design. She said rainwater harvesting is a great solution because during the rainy season in Mexico residents can use rainwater instead of water from the Cutzamala system – a reservoir that supplies water to Mexico City and the State of Mexico.
Palacios Díaz dreams of rainwater systems in markets, malls, and other community spaces. The cooperative is also working on designs that are personalized to the needs of their clients – whether for a low-cost system or to meet a larger demand for water.
As women, she and the other members of Pixcatl want to set an example for those who want to be involved in water harvesting.
“I think it’s very beautiful that we can encourage young girls and show women in a different context,” said another member, Abigail López Durán, “that we can also use tools and not be afraid to lose. “
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