The Mexico City government has announced a rainwater catchment program for homeowners who live in parts of the capital with limited or non-existent water supply.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said in a Twitter post that the government’s Environment Secretariat will install 10,000 rainwater harvesting systems this year in neighborhoods “with the biggest drinking water supply problems.”

Over the next six years, the program aims to install a total of 100,000 catchment systems in homes, many of which currently depend on water deliveries from tankers.

Environment Secretary Marina Robles García said the government will invest 200 million pesos (US $10.5 million) in the program, which will benefit residents of boroughs such as the densely-populated and sprawling Iztapalapa and partially rural Xochimilco.

She explained that the government will carry out a competitive tendering process to find companies or organizations to supply and install the systems and to train residents how to use them. The first installations are expected to take place in April.

One organization well placed to compete for the government contract is Isla Urbana, which has already installed thousands of rainwater harvesting systems in Mexico City and other parts of the country.

Sheinbaum said that homeowners who receive the systems “don’t have to contribute anything but their commitment to be trained and to learn” how to use them.

Source: El Economista (sp)