The metropolis of nearly 22 million people is facing a severe water crisis as a tangle of problems — including geography and leaks — are compounded by climate change.
This is briefly mentioned in the article, but it fails to capture the scale of the disaster.
The city of Tenochtitlan was built on an island in a lake (Lake Texcoco). The Aztecs built a series of dams to control water levels in the lake. When Cortez conquered the Aztecs, he destroyed the dams. This resulted in frequent flooding in the city. In their infinite wisdom, the Spanish conquerors drained the lake, to avoid flooding. The city continued to expand into the areas previously occupied by the lake. And now here we are.
This is briefly mentioned in the article, but it fails to capture the scale of the disaster.
The city of Tenochtitlan was built on an island in a lake (Lake Texcoco). The Aztecs built a series of dams to control water levels in the lake. When Cortez conquered the Aztecs, he destroyed the dams. This resulted in frequent flooding in the city. In their infinite wisdom, the Spanish conquerors drained the lake, to avoid flooding. The city continued to expand into the areas previously occupied by the lake. And now here we are.