The new "dry" cities

We're not talking alcohol

Mad Max: Fury Road

Citing today a CNN story about Bogota, one of the highest capital cities in the world in terms of elevation, running out of water and being forced into rationing. We’re talking about 9 million citizens.

The rationing came into effect Thursday morning. Bogotá and dozens of surrounding towns have been divided into nine different zones with domestic running water cut off for 24 hours in each zone on a rotation that will reset every 10 days.

Nearby supplying reservoirs are presently at one-fifth of their historical norms.

CNN

Bogota, because of its elevation, is sort of a canary in the coal mine:

“Most cities around the world depend on aquifers for their water supplies. Bogota is different in that almost all our supply comes from surface waters like reservoirs, which are more susceptible to rain patterns,” said Armando Sarmiento, an ecology professor at Bogotá’s Javeriana University.

It’s this dependence on rain that makes Bogotá particularly vulnerable to drought, Sarmiento told CNN.

It is not hard to imagine Bogota being depopulated over time as climate change enforces longer and more intense droughts. The capital sits at about five degrees north of the equator. Imagine a capital city being abandoned on environment/cost grounds — just too tough of a situation with too high of a price tag attached.

Inconceivable?

Hardly.