Posted on 12/08/2005 1:46:20 PM PST by blam
Mexico's sinking city
By Claire Marshall
BBC, Mexico City
Mention a sinking city and it is a fair bet that Venice is the place which comes to mind, yet parts of the centre of Mexico City are sinking at an even faster rate than that of the fabled Italian lagoon city.
The Popocatepetl volcano erupted for the first time 23,000 years ago
Not so long ago, you used to be able to stand on the green wooded slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano and look down on Mexico City.
Now, the view is blocked by a dense brown cloud of pollution.
Peel back this vile smog, and you uncover one of the biggest megalopolises in the world.
In just half a century, its population has increased seven-fold.
Now, more than 20 million people live and work in this hectic, expanding mass of concrete.
The Mexican capital is host to an array of unenviable problems.
The gap between rich and poor is among the biggest in the world. The violent crime rate is steadily climbing.
More than four million cars clog the badly-planned and poorly-built streets.
Its toxic air causes breathing and skin disorders.
But, worse than any of this, it is sinking.
Like the world revolving, there is an imperceptible, but inexorable movement under way.
In this instance... it is downwards.
Illustrious past
If you lift and soar from the side of the Popocatepetl volcano - down into the greasy smog - you may arrive at the Cibeles fountain, in a chic central district of the city.
"In the history of urbanisation there has never existed such a radical transformation"
Jorge Legorreta, architect
Ringed by fashionable restaurants, it is a popular place for locals to come to relax.
The architect Jorge Legorreta often comes here for a lunchtime stroll. His greying hair is neatly brushed over his ears.
His thick moustache dances above a lively mouth. Jorge walks past a rusty steel pipe, about half a metre high.
He points at it. "Twenty-five years ago, this drain was level with the ground," he says, "but the whole area has just fallen away from around it."
Jorge's eyes twinkle as he remembers the city's illustrious past.
It was the jewel of the Aztec empire.
The Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, first set eyes on Tenochtitlan, as it was then called in 1519.
One of his band of soldiers wondered whether it was a dream, calling it an "enchanted vision". It was a beautiful, well-planned floating city built in harmony with its surroundings, in the middle of a lake.
But it was not to stay that way for long.
The Spanish soon drained the water away, and started building.
"In the world and in the history of urbanisation," Jorge says, "there has never existed such a radical transformation."
'Crazy angles'
Mexico City is sinking around its historic Angel of Independence
This is the root of the unique problem.
An immense city has been built on an unstable lake bed.
To provide water for the millions, the aquifer - a vast water reserve - is being drained. As the water is sucked out, the city lurches downwards.
You do not have to wander far to see the results.
Pavements and roads are cracked.
The walls of buildings are buckled, with their balconies leaning at crazy angles.
The most extraordinary example is the symbol of the city: a monument celebrating Mexico's independence from Spain.
This towering stone column topped with a golden angel was built in the 1900s.
Recently, 23 new steps had to be added to reach its base as the city had sunk around it.
And it is going to carry on sinking.
Leaks
Ilan Adler, a lean, bespectacled environmental scientist, proudly shows off some large black plastic tanks in the back yard of his university buildings.
"It's estimated that in the past 100 years the city has sunk more than nine metres"
Ilan Adler, scientist
He has helped to devise a system that harvests rain, which now provides around 80% of the water used by the teachers and students.
But water conservation is not a high priority for those running Mexico City.
Up to 40% of the water sucked from the aquifer is wasted.
The creaking supply system is full of leaks.
In Ilan's words: "It's a very serious problem. It's estimated that in the past 100 years the city has sunk more than nine metres, which is the height of a three-storey building!
"It's mainly down to the over-extraction of water from the aquifer, and our lack of conservation."
This mismanagement has led to the greatest irony of all.
One in four people does not have access to piped fresh water.
Water shortage
Xochitl Gonzalez sighs as she turns the tap and nothing comes out.
She lives in Iztapalapa - one of the poorest areas of Mexico City - where houses made out of bare concrete blocks teeter on the sides of steep slopes.
People here have to rely on trucks which come once a week, carrying foul water which needs chlorination.
Sometimes they do not come at all.
She says: "When the water supply runs out, a decision has to be made whether to provide for schools, or for homes. When there isn't enough water to clean the schools, they have to close, because of the risk of infection."
Xochitl looks from her roof out across the grey, dirty expanse of the city.
She says: "To me, it just seems illogical. This city was built above a lake, and yet we don't have water."
Depends on the audience segment. The ladies liked the first part, because two of the guys are undeniably hunky. The men, however, were inclined to side with me, since I was stopping the guys taking off more clothes.
My wife and I toured Mexico fairly extensively in 1964.
We even drove up the Nevado de Toluca (15,000 foot volcano) in a 1960 Pontiac on a semi-road which at a minimum required a four wheel drive and lots of road clearance, which the Pontiac didn't have.
But Mexico City D.F. was our undoing. We both got Montezuma's Revenge squared or cubed. And we were doing our best not to drink the water.
Before succumbing to Mr Montezuma's Revenge, we rented a guide and toured the city. At that time, the older part of the National Cathedral was sinking fairly drastically at one end. The newer part was still mostly level.
Out where the Aztecs built their city and pyramids, there was no apparent settling at all, so they evidently didn't build in the middle of a lake.
As I recall, in '64 the population was about 7.5 million, and the traffic was horrible. One drove in the City with one's eyes closed, just as the resident population did.
I've been touring Mexico each Sept. for the last four years (for a week). 15-25 guys from our church drive down to Chapultapec (an hour and a half south of San Diego) and build a house or two for Christian working families who:
1. are living in a car, cardboard and pallet shack, under a camper shell, tarp,etc.
2. usually have anywhere from 3 to 8 kids (or extended family with them)
3. Are married. 4. Work full time for $5.00/day
It's easy to see why millions come here every year:
Mexico is a hell hole. Five minutes after crossing the border (southbound) you enter another world, the stink, the trash, the dirt, the lousy infrastructure, the poverty, etc. it's pitiful.
The people we build the houses for, however, are friendly and generous. One family made us lunch every day while we built their house. We found out she borrowed money from a friend just to buy food and soda for us, and the food was very good. (We did pray harder before those meals!) One trick we learned was to take papaya enzymes before and after meals to kill the bugs and for the most part it works, the last couple years we've only had one or two guys go down.
Just doing our part to slow down illigal immigration, one family at a time.
"Racist" Mexico is of the opressed and one need not critisize them from your perch of white privilege. So fine indeed that they have sent 20% of their population to America to spread their great culture to us primitives.
They had to create a new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- the new one is actually pretty clever -- it is an off-center round edifice that self-corrects like one of those offset carousels in playgrounds.
I went through the old one a few years ago, but I think it is closed permanently due to sinkage.
If I can find them Ihave some wild pics of just how bad the sinking is of the church and the old basilica.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.