Tag: Some Cities

Cape Town is not alone. I was startled to discover that Mexican officials frequently treat water distribution and treatment not as public services but as political favors. When thunderstorms are cause for panic Nezahualcoyotl is a city in Mexico State near the nation’s sprawling capital. Officially, nearly all Mexicans have access to running water. Numerous engineers across Mexico similarly expressed frustration that they were sometimes forbidden from making technical fixes to improve local water service because of a mayor’s “political commitments.” In Nezahualcoyotl, I met a water director who openly boasted of using public water service for his political and personal gain. My sources also alleged that the powerful Revolutionary Institutional Party, or PRI – which has long run Mexico State, and thus controlled its water supply – has turned off the water in towns whose mayors belonged to opposition parties. Water corruption isn’t limited to Mexico State, or to the center-right PRI party. Water is a state secret In Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, I saw how water can hold a different kind of political power. The workers controlled valuable information about the city’s water system. But when politicians manipulate it for their personal or political benefit, some cities flood while others go dry.