This week, Los Angeles, CA, mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced that, due to concerted efforts on the part of private homeowners and government agencies, the city of Los Angeles had managed to reduce its water consumption by 17%, in July of this year. While multi-family residences measured the smallest reduction (8%), private homes achieved a 20% reduction, as government buildings dropped down a whopping 34%. Though no details were given regarding how these reductions were achieved, it’s probably safe to assume that it involved a combination of low-flow fixtures and smart irrigation techniques: basically the low-hanging fruit of water conservation. But are these small fixes enough?
For a glimpse into Los Angeles’ potential future, one need look no further than Mexico City. As a recent article in the Houston Chronicle points out, the same drought that has crippled much of Texas this year is also wreaking havoc south of the border, “killing crops and livestock and threatening to dehydrate major cities.” Mexico City in particular is struggling to keep it’s 22 million residents hydrated, and officials warn that without extreme weather intervention in the next few weeks, the city will be forced to deal with “extreme scarcity” when the dry season begins in October.
Unlike Los Angeles, which was built upon a desert, Mexico City was sits on a large lake bed that originally held more than enough water to fulfill the city’s needs. But 500 years of water waste and faulty planning have drained the lake almost entirely. And while exponential population growth is part of the problem, rampant construction—both of tunnels that flush rainfall out of the city and widespread paving of once-open land—has led to a disruption of the normal water cycle and depleted, or “over-exploited,” aquifers. And so, even though the last three months have included a fair share of rain, the area’s water basin still hold only a fraction of its normal volume—drying up while rainwater races down paved sidewalks and storm drains that empty out miles from the city center.
So, as cities like Los Angeles and Houston attempt to control and reduce water use, it will be important to look beyond showerheads and drought-resistant plants towards large-scale water resource management that includes mitigating the impact of our traditional urban landscapes on overtaxed aquifers and parched watersheds.