The Paradox of Mexico's Water Crisis

The country of Mexico is flooding. But it’s also running out of water? In this video Andy speaks with experts on the ground in Mexico to learn about the Mexican water crisis and the unique problems the country is facing.

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Executive Producer/Story Editor/Host: Andy Burgess
Story/Research: Anjali Sharma
Editors: Dylan Boynukalın & Andy Burgess
Motion Graphics: Dylan Boynukalın

Special thanks to Eduardo Hinojosa Robles from World Resources Institute Mexico.

Archive Maps from David Rumsey

Sources 🔗

Time Stamps:
0:00 - Mexico is flooding but also running out of water
1:19 - People vs Big Corporations
2:04 - North Mexico vs South Mexico
2:57 - Mexico City is sinking
3:32 -There’s no ‘one common solution’
4:09 - There’s not enough money
4:47 - Why corporations use so much of Mexico's water
6:12 - This is where 80% of Mexico's water goes
6:46 - The effects of climate change across Mexico

#mexico #geography #water

[Faultlinevideos]

Hey guys, what water-specific stories would you like us to dive into in the future? Are there any countries with water issues that are not talked about enough that we can highlight?

[luiss]

I'm from Monterrey, Nuevo León. I can't stress enough how critical the situation was last year and how it affected us all here. Water shortage from 10 AM until 4 AM every single day, people without access to water for 3 or 4 weeks straight, not a single drop, even for people living in the center of the city, not just in far away places, people doing riots in the street because the whole neighborhood lacked water for weeks and nobody came to help them.... For a couple of months there was this constant thought on my head: where is my family going to move in case there is no water left whatsoever. I was literally doing plans in my head for that possible future. We only got saved thanks to big storms that ouccured around august to october. Other wise, who knows what would have happened. And we all know now that this is going to be recurrent every single year in which there are few storms.

[santiagohuergo]

I'm from Nuevo León, México, and the video is totally true. During 2022, temperatures during summer rose up to 40°C (104°F) and we had NO water at all, but there was never a shortage of beer of Coke. Have you seen the Rango movie? That movie became a reality to us.
Also, the lack of infrastructure is so severe that when it actually rains, not even heavy rain, just normal rain that lasts a couple hours, the city floods. That sounds like a joke, but it's our reality.

[Chorutowo]

This honestly just makes me appreciate drinking water more.

[ripwednesdayadams]

It’s horrible that corporations are permitted to pay next to nothing to use massive quantities of water in Mexico and the US. Our future is so bleak and nothing concrete is being done to stop the abuse of the environment and reign in corporations that continue business as usual while making billions of dollars while they are worsening the problems. It feels impossible trying to stop them. Their massive fortunes allows them the ability to control and influence the government much more effectively than the public.

[noahwail]

Same shit happens in northern Germany, Coka-Cola has got waterrights in some areas, so the lokal farmers and citisens can´t get the water they need. Corruption is widespread...

[hola]

I am mexican and it's sad to see that even YouTubers from other countries understand the issue but people here only think more companies, more money, all is good, instead of looking to regulate the ones that are already here

[Faultlinevideos]

Hey guys, what water-specific stories would you like us to dive into in the future? Are there any countries with water issues that are not talked about enough that we can highlight?

[alvarogonzalezhernandez]

Great video! I have to say though, the shaded area at 2:30 is northwestern Mexico, and the footage that follows it is from Monterrey, a city in the northeast. Sadly, almost all of Northern Mexico, from Baja to Nuevo León, experiences water shortages, so Northeastern Mexico should be shaded too :)

[christopherlin]

Can’t believe high quality video like this have less than 10k view, you deserve better! Please keep up the good work!

[santiagobonilla]

Someone from Baja Sur here: Even though we live in an economically "rich" area of the country, constant water access is granted almost solely to the hotels, and normal people are having to wait up to three weeks to get water supply from the grid.

[MeEntertainmentJo_]

Why aren’t these videos more popular you always do good explainers.

[MajExplains]

How the fuck do you guys have so few views, seriously, this is some of the best content on this website

[robertoreza]

Real paradox, i live in the north, water never scarce, but just limited consumption. In the south, and specially in the "suburbs" of CDMX, where always rains, they almost never have tap water. In southern states public tap water is rare.

[juanarredondo]

i live in Nuevo Leon, the state with the water problem, im avtually working near the water reservoir you showed, we are building another one called "presa libertad", but from my experience living in this state, there was one time that the goverment declared the shutdown of the beer factory for a state emergency and every one panicked to the point of buying large quantities of beer cans

[javiernaranjo]

Mexican here... water were I live has started to interrupt service. I'm from the northern part of Mexico City's Metropolitan Area. Where I live is supposed to be an uppermid class new residential area (~50, 000 families). We now have to have large storage tanks (10, 000 L) since water only "comes" once or twice every 2 weeks. The irony is that 10 min away there is a medium sized dam (Presa Madin) that is so neglected and dirty it is not used for water distribution.

[ruiz]

Im Mexican, i lived in Nuevo León during the drough, it was terrible, we did not have water for our basic needs, we needed to made rations for days, and everyday go to a pipe in the colony to get wather, most of the week there was no wather. and yet my family got it easy, many people had no wather at all and many instead to go in their car or truck to their colony pipe had to go on foot to far places to get some wather, many people had health problems from having to move heavy buckets of wather all day, even some women wih their kids had to do it, because the pipes opened during daytime when most men are working in their office or Industry, while this the destiliries keep working as usual with minor restrictions and it is just sad to have no wather but cheap sodas and beer in the shops and supermarkets. And there are many more instances where foreign companies, our own goverment and sadly people, exploit our nation resources for short term goals and proffit.

[Homer-OJ-Simpson]

Mexico is a country of extreme diverse geography and weather. The northern 1/3 is mostly desert with large mountains in the center, flat in the east, and hilly in the far west. Tijuana on one side is amazing weather like San Diego -- mild temperatures and low humidty all year round. Monterrey on the east is very hot and also humid during the summer with cool winters. Then in the center you have half of mexico's population up in a plateau between mountain high mountain ranges. It's semi arid and because it's very high up, few rivers. In fact, hardly any major rivers in Mexico and not sure if any of them are navigable. This center plateau area has mild temps much like Tijuana. But to the east in the center along the coast like Veracruz it's hot and humid -- jungle like weather. To the west along the coast it's more of the same though a little less heat and humidity. Then in the southern part of Mexico it's a rainforest jungle and mountainous while the yucatan is a flat rainforest jungle.

While the geography looks amazing, it is a problem as well. Because of it's terrain and weather, I don't believe Mexico has any major rivers that are navigable. It also has water problems in many areas -- the north because it's a desert and the central areas because it's semi-arid that is up high and no major water sources as a result. The Yucatan has terribly soil and hard to grow anything -- also no navigable rivers. The southern region of mexico is very mountainous and a jungle making life difficult there.

Compare that to the US which has a huge area in the midwest / great plains that not only has very fertile soil, but good amount rain and many navigable rivers. To the east, there are areas of great fertile soil and navigable rivers as well. Go to the west, California has extremely fertile soil and the mountains produce enough precipitation to feed the crops in California though the water is becoming an issue in recent years.

[ricardocolyersanchez]

Watching this from my home in Mexico while I wait for the government to send water to my house again so that I can take a shower after the gym

[MostPowerfulPMofIndia]

I have always valued water and environment
It is my passion and the aim of my life
Great video
This is my classroom material for sure
I too want to teach read on environment and do something for the world