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AMNA NAWAZ: We turn now to
the water crisis gripping
North America's biggest city.

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The Mexico City area is home
to some 22 million people,

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and solutions to keep water
accessible have been elusive.

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As special correspondent
Julia Galiano-Rios reports,

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there are a number of factors
complicating the situation.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: This has
become a daily routine for
53-year-old Teresa Vazquez. To

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clean the dishes or wash clothes
for her family of 10, she ladles
murky water from a barrel.

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It's been 10 years since a
single drop came from her taps.

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TERESA VAZQUEZ, Iztapalapa
Resident (through translator):
It's very hard living without

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running water. We have
to wash our clothes with
very little water, do
dishes with very little,

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shower with very little.
It's very hard to live
without the water we need.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: Vazquez
lives in the largely
impoverished Mexico City

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neighborhood of Iztapalapa.
Every day, she has to buy
bottled water for drinking

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and bathing her grandkids. This
water, she says, is too dirty.

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TERESA VAZQUEZ (through
translator): The water is not
clean, but we need it, so we

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have to take it how it comes.
There's no point in complaining.
In fact, when we do complain,

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they sometimes don't even
bring it. So, yes, it's dirty,
but at least we have water.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: Once a week,

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a city truck delivers water
piped into an 800-gallon
tank outside her home.

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This is the reality for hundreds
of thousands of residents in a

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sprawling metropolis
running out of water.
Residents in this community,

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one of many like it in
the city, tell us they
rely on these trucks for
their water consumption.

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Now, as the situation worsens
and the system becomes
more and more strained,

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tensions rise in these
communities, as neighbors
vie for what little
water there is available.

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That means every trip
for drivers like Cristian
Ovando comes with risks,

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from navigating narrow,
bumpy alleyways to violence.

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CRISTIAN OVANDO, Water Truck
Driver (through translator):

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We get sent to an address
to deliver the water, but,
sometimes, on the way,

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desperate residents jump
on the truck and divert
it to another location,
and basically demand we

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give them water instead. If we
refuse, they can verbally and
sometimes physically attack us.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: Mexico City
has faced water shortages for
years, but never like this.

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Most, if not all of its
key reservoirs, are less
than a third full. Some
media reports, based on

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statements from the
country's water commission,
warn, Mexico City was
nearing a day zero, when it

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can't provide any water
to its people. Experts say
that's unlikely, but the
situation remains dire.

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The crisis has been
exacerbated by climate change,

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hotter, drier conditions
and lower-than-normal
rainfall. But there's a
more immediate problem.

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TAMARA LUENGO, Founder,
Aqueducto: This water crisis
is not a crisis of water

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resources, but, rather, a crisis
of management of resources.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: Tamara
Luengo, a self-proclaimed
water nerd, runs

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an environmental consulting
firm in Mexico City.

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Luengo says the mismanagement
started centuries ago, when

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Spanish conquistadors drained
the region of water to
build a city on lake beds.

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TAMARA LUENGO: This city
continues to be rich in
water, of course. The
mismanagement of the water

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in this city has caused that
this wonderful water city is
not visible at the moment.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: Today,
Mexico City draws about
30 percent of its water
from the Cutzamala System,

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a collection of
reservoirs, pipes and
plants over 75 miles away.

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The rest comes mostly
from underground aquifers,
tapped by hundreds of wells.

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But the network that
brings water to residents
is in bad shape. About
40 percent of the city's

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water is lost in leaks. Even
though Mexico City gets about
30 inches of rain a year

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and frequent flooding,
its ability to hold on to
that water is practically

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nonexistent. The city
also rarely uses practices
like wastewater treatment.

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TAMARA LUENGO: Fixing a network
so old as the network of Mexico

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City requires a series of
resources, such as will,

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for starters, to fix all
the network and to avoid
this 40 percent being lost.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS:
Newly elected president
Claudia Sheinbaum,

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the former mayor of Mexico City,
defended her record on this
issue on the campaign trail.

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CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM,
Mexican President-Elect
(through translator):
As mayor, we did carry

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out works and we do have
projects which we will carry
out in the greater Mexican City

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area when we reach the
presidency, so that we can have
water supply in the long term.

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So, yes, we did things,
and we do have projects.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS:
Luengo says part of the
reason the crisis has

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received so much attention is
because of who it's affecting.

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TAMARA LUENGO: Throughout
the years, the vulnerable
communities of the city in the

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poorer areas of the
city, within marginalized
communities were the ones
facing the water crisis.

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But, strangely, within
this water crisis,

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we have been seeing that some
of the richer areas of the city
are facing this day-by-day,

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continuous evidence of the water
crisis. And this definitely
has brought a lot of attention.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: In
Iztapalapa, Teresa Vazquez
and her family feel the
inequality firsthand.

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Vazquez's daughter Brenda hopes
politicians just fulfill their
promises this time around.

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BRENDA ESCALANTE,
Iztapalapa Resident (through
translator): All that money

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that politicians spend
on putting up banners,
TV ads and all that,

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the fair thing would be
for them to spend it on
these neighborhoods, so
that we can have water,

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so that we can be a bit more
comfortable and experience what
other neighborhoods do, which

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is opening their tap and
getting their water and
being able to wash their
dishes or take a shower.

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JULIA GALIANO-RIOS: A basic need
that more and more residents
can no longer take for granted.

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For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Julia Galiano-Rios
in Mexico City.