Mexican city limits daily water access to 6 hours amid drought

A woman fills water tanks with water for her family daily use as Mexico City and the metropolitan area is running out of water as drought takes hold of the city of almost 22 million people in the municipality of Xochimilco in Mexico City, Mexico April 20, 2021.

A Mexican city in the border state of Nuevo Leon is limiting daily water access to residents to just a six-hour window in response to a historic drought in the region, authorities said Friday.

The city of Monterrey, a major business hub whose metropolitan area is home to 5.3 million, will allow water use from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily. Its previous policy restricted water for one day per week based on location.

The move is the latest by authorities to tackle water shortages in the region. Demand currently outpaces supply by about 2.5 cubic meters per second, city water director Juan Ignacio Barragan said in a press conference.

The state of Nuevo Leon, which has increasingly seen temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) entered a state of emergency for "extreme drought" in February. The area has seen lower-than-expected amounts of rain since 2015, Barragan said.

Source: Reuters / Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey; Writing by Kylie Madry in Mexico City; Editing by Aurora Ellis