Mexico City is Sinking

Mexico City's 20 million inhabitants are draining the aquifer under the city, causing it to sink, wreaking havok on the city infratructure.

Walls of buildings are buckled, balconies lean at unnatural angles. Pavements and roads are cracked. 223 new steps had to be added to the famous statue celebrating Mexico's independence from Spain as the ground sank around it.

Estimates are that the city has sunk more than 9 meters in the last 100 years.

Still, conservation remains a low priority for the government. Some 40% of the water pumped from the aquifer is lost due to leaks in the aging supply system.

One in four people have no access to piped fresh water and must rely on water that is trucked in once a week.

Ilan Adler, an environmental scientist, has developed a system to harvest rain which now provides 80% of the water at his university, but there is little hope of widespread adoption of such a system anytime soon.

Mexico is squandering its water supply just as the U.S. is squandering the world's oil supplies. Both are in a state of denial and, apparently, will react only when the crisis reaches a critical stage.