Environment

Fighting for Water and Life in Mexico City

The Mexican metropolis is a city of vast inequality, and access to water reflects that.
In many neighborhoods of Mexico City, drinking water must be gathered by hand. About 30 to 40 percent of the city's water is wasted because of leaking pipes.Carlos Jasso/Reuters

This story was adapted from “Defending Water, Defending Life,” published in Stranger’s Guide. Go here to sign up for their free newsletter, Field Guide.

It’s a Friday evening in Coyoacán, Mexico City, and on the busy thoroughfare of Avenida Aztecas, a dozen neighbors mill around a tent erected just off the curb. They crowd around plastic chairs and mustard-colored couches. The back third of the tent has been turned into a makeshift kitchen, where a few people have prepared food for anyone who wants it: red rice, hard-boiled eggs, beans, sausage, sharply spicy red salsa. A spattering of university students and tattooed 20- and 30-somethings mingle with their elders, who they refer to with the honorifics don or doña. Commanding a particular degree of respect is Doña Fili, a tiny, gray-haired woman in her mid-80s. She can’t be more than five feet tall, but her presence commands immediate respect, and people jump up to greet her.