How Mexico City Averted All-Out Drought

As severe drought parched the Valley of Mexico earlier this year, news outlets began a countdown to a total failure of the water system. Reservoirs more than 100 kilometers away from Mexico City were at dangerously low levels and some areas already were facing acute shortages. Tanker trucks loaded with potable water sloshed down residential avenues to deliver emergency supplies. 

Without ample rain, “Day Zero” would theoretically arrive in June. But that darkest fear of urban planners, politicians, residents and academics never came to pass. How did one of the world's largest cities avert all-out disaster?

What saved the metropolitan area’s 22 million residents from a calamitous water-system collapse was a combination of just-in-time rainfall, urgent political pressure and underground reserves that saw the city through the worst. The drawn-out crisis vaulted the region’s aging infrastructure to television screens and newspaper front pages, spurring everyday chilangos — as capital dwellers are known — to wonder if years of neglect and indifference by politicians would change.

“The model of water management in Mexico City is no longer functioning, and it’s important that we think of long-term solutions,” said Rodrigo Gutiérrez Rivas, a researcher focused on constitutional and water rights at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM. “Water became one of the main issues during the campaign cycle and now that it's won by a wide margin, the government of Mexico City has a huge opportunity to transform the model.”

Via Reasons to be Cheerful

Industrial wastelands to wildlife oases: Five nature wins that have actually worked

There's a treasure trove of ways to save species in decline, and restore their habitats so they can live safely. In a healthy state, rich and biodiverse habitats can replenish our water, air, soil and reduce the risk of dangerous contagious diseases.

A major study revealed this year that conservation efforts are generally effective at reducing global biodiversity loss. International researchers spent 10 years assessing conservation measures, including the establishment of protected areas, habitat restoration and eradicating invasive species. They found that in most cases (66%) these measures improved the state of biodiversity or slowed its decline.

The need for conservation projects like these is growing in urgency. Two years ago, leaders of more than 100 nations signed up to the most ambitious international effort to save the world's nature: to protect 30% of the world's land and oceans by 2030. In October 2024, world leaders have again gathered to take stock of the global progress to protect biodiversity, in Cali, Colombia.

So far, the world is a long way off track: just 17% of land and 8% of our oceans are under some form of designated protection, according to The Nature Conservancy – though the area where protection is enforced effectively is likely less.

Future Planet brings you five proven ways it's possible to restore biodiversity and preserve nature.

Via Positive.News