Water Security with Social Organization and Water Forest Care in the Megalopolis of Central Mexico

This article analyses climate change impacts for 32 million inhabitants in the Megalopolis of Central Mexico, threatened by chaotic urbanization, land-use changes, Water Forest logging, organized crime, unsustainable agriculture, and biodiversity loss. An expensive hydraulic water management system produces water scarcity, leading to the overexploitation of aquifers by mixing toxic industrial, domestic, and rainwater sewage, and pumping it out of the endorheic basin. This increases subsidence, damages urban infrastructure, and floods marginal neighborhoods with toxic sewage. A dissipative, self-regulating, open system, combined with a participatory research methodology, explores potential tipping points in water management. Sixteen interrelated alternatives explore water security threatened by climate change risks through integrated water resource management; safe drinking water; separation of rainfall from domestic and industrial sewage and its infiltration into groundwater; recycling toxic wastewater inside industries; treating 64,184m3/s domestic wastewater with aquifer recharge; repairing broken drainage and limiting toxic wastewater floods; greening urban areas; adaptation to climate risk; recognition of unpaid female water activities and Indigenous protection of Water Forest with involvement of three state authorities. A digital platform for water security; urban planning; citizen audit against water authorities’ corruption; and aquifer recharge from protected area of SAMBA are improving the livelihood for 32 million inhabitants with greater equity in marginal neighborhoods.