UNAM to help Mexico City with rainwater-harvesting program

The government of Mexico City signed an agreement with Mexico's national university UNAM to jointly improve the implementation of the former's Agua a tu Casa (water to your house) rainwater-harvesting program.

Members of UNAM's water management and reuse program Pumagua will provide their expertise to aid the local government in performing water meter checkups, as well as in carrying out leak detection studies in the rainwater harvesting systems that have already being installed in the city.

Agua a tu Casa involves using rainwater to help alleviate the water deficit in the capital. In its first phase, it involved the installation of rainwater harvesting systems in the six districts of the city that suffer the most from water scarcity.

Since the program was launched last year, the government has installed 474 rainwater collection systems. Additional funds have already been earmarked for the installation of systems in five low-income housing projects, as well as in some public sports facilities.

According to the government, about 117mn liters of rainwater was harvested last year, which would have cost about 800,000 pesos (US$36,000) if purchased from a utility.

UNAM's Pumagua program focuses on improving water management, use and reuse practices across the university's main campus and facilities. Rainwater harvesting is one of the methods used as part of the program. According to school authorities, Pumagua has helped to significantly reduce UNAM's water consumption over the past six years. The program's model is already being replicated in some Mexican municipalities.