Tijuana’s Dangerous Water Crisis: Shrinking Colorado River and Aging Infrastructure

Written by Parriva — July 7, 2023

Among the last cities downstream to receive water from the shrinking Colorado River, Tijuana is starring down a water crisis driven also by aging, inefficient infrastructure and successive governments that have done little to prepare the city for diminishing water in the region.

Entire neighborhoods on Tijuana’s hilly and sometimes grassy far reaches remain unconnected to the city’s water mains and pipes. Accessing water there is a daily struggle—and an expensive one, as trucked-in water usually costs much more than what people connected to the city pay.

Even in middle class neighborhoods, like homemaker Martha Muñoz’s in Tijuana’s fast-growing south, neighbors have to share updates on WhatsApp about possible shutoffs and coordinate requests to city authorities when it’s cut.

For some, that shutoff lasted days longer than the official 36-hour estimate. Authorities admitted that given the size of the affected area, they could not send water trucks to many neighbourhoods.

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