The Water Shortage in Mexico

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In our generation of new technologies and high civilization it is hard to believe that our World is in Water crisis. This crisis is affecting not only low-developed parts of the world but also it affects high-developed countries, about one third of the humanity suffers from the scarcity of water (Molden 2010). One of the main causes of it is overpopulation. In increasing water demand water sources which we have now are not able to renew themselves. Another factor of water scarcity is not economized water consumption. Nowadays most of countries are beginning to realize that solving the problem of scarcity of water is very crucial. One of them is Mexico where water shortage is the national problem. Water shortage in Mexico The total area of Mexico’s surface is slightly less than 2 million km2 (UNESCO 2006). The population is about 103 million people (Castro and Heller 2009). In the last two decades, as the population of the country has been growing intensively, the demand of water also dramatically increased. According to Armentia and Cisneros, the number of people who don’t have an access to water supply is about 11 million, almost 11% of Mexico’s population (Castro and Heller 2009). But there are far more people who don’t have an access to safe water. Moreover this situation with lack of water is exacerbated by malfunction of sewer systems. But to understand the causes of scarcity of water in Mexico and to evaluate the policy of the government in this sector, it needs to be observed thoroughly. Mexico is high-urbanized country. Almost 78% of its citizens live in cities (Castro and Heller 2009). That is why citizens of urban areas suffer the most from the appreciable water shortage. The situation with water supply in urban areas is critical. As an example, Mexico City, with population about 20 million people, faces quite serious scarcity of water. It obtains water from 3 main basins, all of them are overexploited (UNESCO 2006). The solution of the government to this problem was to pump water from the aquifers. However, these palliative actions of the government have not solved the problem, three aquifers from which city gets water are overused (UNESCO 2006). Another measure taken by the government of Mexico is charging money for water consumption (Castro and Heller 2009). This fact encourages citizens of Mexico to save water because the more water they waste the more money they pay.

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