Water is being deliberately cut off to poorer parts of Mexico City – and Covid-19 infections are soaring

In one of the most unequal countries in the world, the water supply is being diverted to the rich, leaving poorer neighbourhoods with empty taps during a deadly pandemic. Chris Havler-Barrett reports from the Santo Domingo suburb in Mexico City

The suburb has seen a high incidence of infection since the crisis began to peak in the region at the beginning of May (Alamy)

The use of water in Mexico City has long been politically charged, and the residents of the Santo Domingo suburb are no strangers to seeing their supplies intentionally cut off.

But in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic it’s proving deadly, with poorer neighbourhoods left without means of basic sanitation as water is intentionally diverted to areas where Mexico City’s richest live. In one of the most unequal countries in the world, it’s leaving the poorest on the brink.  

“We don’t have any water because they are sending them to the multifamiliares [large apartment blocks]. They never lack water – but we have been three months without,” resident Maria Dolores Vias tells The Independent, during a protest of some 50 people outside the council.