MEXICO CITY (AP) — Sonia Estefanía Palacios Díaz soared above her neighborhood in a cable car one recent morning, scanning a sea of blue and black water tanks, pipes and cables, looking for rain-harvesting systems.
“There’s one!” he said, pointing to a black tank connected to a smaller blue unit with connecting pipes that extended up to the roof where water was collected.
“I’m always looking for different rainwater harvesting systems,” he said with a smile. “I’m also always looking for places where I can install one.”
With prolonged drought and inconsistent public water distribution, many Mexico City residents are turning to rainwater. Isla Urbana, a pioneering nonprofit and for-profit company, has installed more than 40,000 rainwater collection systems across Mexico since the company was founded 15 years ago. And Mexico City’s government has invested in the installation of 70,000 systems since 2019, still a trickle for the vast metropolis of about 9 million people.
But there is a lack of training and resources to maintain the systems after they are installed, leading to them falling into disrepair or residents selling off the parts.
Palacios Díaz and the group of other women who make up the Pixcatl cooperative, which means water harvesting in the indigenous Nahuatl language, take the stage.
In low-income areas like Iztapalapa — Mexico City’s most populous borough — the group is trying to keep the systems working while also educating residents on how to maintain them, including brainstorming their own designs and giving residents low-cost options for additional supplies.
Palacios Díaz has lived with water scarcity in Iztapalapa for as long as he can remember. “People here line up from 3 a.m. to 2 p.m. to get water (from delivery trucks),” he said from his mother’s house. “We once lived for more than a month without a regular water supply.”
Earlier this year, reservoirs supplying the capital were dangerously low. Authorities reduced the amount of water released, leaving neighborhoods unaccustomed to water scarcity facing a new reality.
Heading into the rainy season, much of Mexico was experiencing moderate to severe drought. Mexico’s reservoirs were beginning to approach half of their capacity, but they were not far full, according to the latest reports from the National Water Commission.
The country relies on rainfall, which normally tapers off in October, to fill the dams, but drought has reduced water levels so much that it is likely to take years.
This has inspired many Mexicans, like Palacios Díaz, to turn to rainwater harvesting.
At the height of the pandemic, she taught urban farming and water harvesting at a local community site. She didn’t seriously consider taking a government course until her students told her they wanted to learn how to build and understand their own systems. After enrolling in a training program to become an installer in 2022, she met other young women from the city who were interested in water harvesting systems and started the co-op.
At the foot of a volcano on the outskirts of Iztapalapa, Lizbeth Esther Pineda Castro and Palacios Díaz, another member of the cooperative, adjust 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 was awarded a free water harvesting system from the Mexico City government in 2021. After the installation, Huitzil requested Pixcatl maintenance because she wasn’t sure how to maintain the system.
Pineda and Palacios Díaz, who stood out in their navy blue polo necks with the Pixcatl logo, cleared debris from the roof so that the system would collect only fresh rain.
“We also add some soap and chlorine to clean the pipes,” Palacios Díaz said, sweeping liquid from a connecting pipe leading to the harvesting system.
Downstairs, they joined other members of the cooperative in a courtyard to look at a 2,500-liter water tank, large enough to supply Huitzil with water for several months. The enormous container was nearly as tall as the Palacios Díaz. Another cooperative member cleaned a filter of 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, such as how much water is in the tank, how much is used and whether it rains.
Before the harvesting system, Huitzil said, she endured water shortages and rationing. Public water was constantly dirty and “dark as chocolate.” She would often use leftover water from doing laundry to clean her yard. Sometimes, when dirty water arrived, she would put it in buckets and wait for the dirt to settle to the bottom, using the cleanest one for showers.
The system has transformed his daily water use and he no longer has to think twice about whether it is safe. The system uses six filters initially, with three more filters added if the water is to be used for drinking.
“The water is beautiful, so beautiful!” said Huitzil. “My clothes come out so clean and the water is sweet. You can even harvest it to make it cleaner to drink.”
With more than 1.8 million residents, Iztapalapa has been one of the main beneficiaries of Mexico City’s harvesting system program. But after two years, the city stopped providing the free systems as many residents faced financial hardship and sometimes sold parts of the systems, finding it difficult to maintain.
“It should be easy to maintain, but it’s boring,” Palacios Diaz said. “Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a scenario where we have not only environmental problems, but also economic problems.”
Loreta Castro Reguera, an architecture professor 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 Mexico’s rainy season, 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 envisions rainwater systems in markets, shopping malls and other community spaces. The cooperative also works on personalized designs based on its customers’ needs — whether it’s a low-cost system or one that meets the demand for more water.
She and other members of Pixcatl want to set an example for women who want to participate in water harvesting.
“It’s really nice that we can inspire young girls and show women in another context,” said another member, Abigail López Durán. “We can also use the tools and not be afraid to get hurt.”
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