Mexico City teeters on 'unprecedented' water shortage

STORY: In this Mexico City suburb, residents gather with their buckets - waiting for the water truck.

It’s their new norm - as the bustling metro area of 21 million people faces a water crisis.

Officials says less rainfall and longer dry seasons are to blame, with 'unprecedented' low levels in a main water system that millions rely on.

Neighbors have started to fight over water in this Mexico neighborhood.

In recent days, protests have even emerged.

Resident Maribel Gutierrez says she's been without water for more than a month now.

"We understand that Mexico City has a serious water problem," she says, but "officials should be empathetic."

Officials have asked them to change their habits to conserve as much water as possible.

Resident Juan Ortega lists some of the changes his community has made.

"We have already made it a rule that cars are no longer washed. The garden, the grass, is never watered, only the plants so that they don't die, we are going to start reusing water from washing machines for watering.”

Water shortages aren't unusual in many parts of Mexico, but officials say the capital's Cutzamala water system is the most stressed it's ever been.

Rafael Carmona is the system’s director.

"Rainfall has been decreasing from 2019 to date and the reduction in rainfall has been constant over the last four or five years. This has led to the Cutzamala system dams having very little stored water. So it has been necessary for gradual reductions in collaboration with the National Water Commission and the Water Commission of the State of Mexico, so at the moment we only have half the water we received in 2019 from the Cutzamala system."

The system's capacity continues to inch lower... at just about 40% capacity at the end of January, down from 54% this time last year.