The Rainwater Harvesting program, promoted by the city government since 2019 and implemented in 11 municipalities, was suspended this year.
The Ministry of the Environment (Sedema) brigades that toured neighborhoods with drinking water shortages stopped looking for homes to install rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Systems (SCALL).
“The operating rules were no longer published this year,” said a Sedema source who promoted the program during the previous administration.
“They saw that few families were interested in installing rainwater collectors, even though it was free, and they decided to stop offering them. We don’t know if there will be a relaunch; with these rains, it wasn’t.”
Regularly issued at the beginning of the year, the rules triggered calls for applications to hire brigade members and installation companies, but they were no longer called.
Although the 2025 Budget did allocate 180 million pesos in resources earmarked for the Public Environmental Fund, which is entirely designated for the program led by Sedema, the installation of collectors has not been carried out this year.
Rainwater harvesting allows the water to be used for cleaning and hygiene purposes in the home after undergoing a filtration process, reducing dependence on water distributed through tankers, which in some cases have a rate of 2,000 pesos per 10,000 liters.
MAINTENANCE
Jorge Fuentes, a specialist with the Water Advisory Council, considered that the crews that will not install new equipment this year should focus on maintaining the equipment already installed.
“Because the infrastructure is already in place, the investment was very high, and it is necessary to guarantee its functionality; it alleviates the City’s water stress,” he stated.
The Agua Capital organization, a partner of the Advisory Council, contributed to the free installation of 150 rainwater harvesters in schools and homes.
“When we installed them, they told us they’d stopped calling the water trucks, a business that grew during the drought in the Cutzamala System,” she added.
The stored water replaces the purchase of water during the six months of the season and two months after the rainy season ends, as part of the benefits of the program originally proposed by Isla Urbana.
ACHIEVEMENTS
In 2022, the government highlighted the receipt of the international ICLEI award for best water management and for reducing the burden of responsibility attributed to women in families.
A report on the Rainwater Harvest Reports, recently issued by Sedema, reported that 73,021 rainwater harvesting systems were installed in Mexico City from 2019 to 2024.
The original goal was to have 100,000 units in six years.
Each year, the program had a budget of 200 million pesos, except in 2022, when it received 418 million pesos. Therefore, the average number of collectors installed increased from 10,000 each year to 21,454 during that period.
The equipment was put into operation in neighborhoods across 11 municipalities where there is a shortage.
With an additional budget of 300 million pesos, collectors were also installed in 1,801 public schools in all districts in 2023 and 2024.
In this case, Sedema reported that 918 million liters of rainwater are collected annually at schools.
Source: reforma
