MEXICO CITY — The capital of Mexico delivers water unequally to its 20 million people.
While residents of neighborhoods like Cuauhtémoc or Polanco suffer occasional water shortages — everyone does — poorer areas face routine shortages, reports Mexican newspaper La Jornada. One such place is Iztapalapa, where there can be no water for weeks, and driving a city van to deliver water is akin to steering a truck full of cash, the daily notes.
One driver, Mario, recently showed bullet marks on his stomach to a La Jornada reporter, while another, José de Jesús Campos, said that armed kidnappers demanding water take drivers hostage.
Mexico City was built on lakes but has been drinking up its underground water over centuries. Water is now piped from distant reservoirs, although much of it is lost during the transfer, the paper reports.
Piedad Caballero, a resident, told La Jornada, that authorities “don’t do anything. They keep saying there is no water.” Inevitably, public anger at inaccessible authorities is vented out at the delivery man.
