Weekend Reading: When the Water Ran Out. An Early Chronicle of a Thirsty City.
No one imagined that the Pearl of Humaya could fall silent so suddenly. Like the three dry rivers, it fell silent, as if taps were turned off with a last gasp of air. In the midst of the oppressive heat of northern Mexico, a million inhabitants were confronted overnight with news that seemed straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie: the dams were empty. There would be no water, not even drinking water. At first, there was disbelief. Many thought it was a temporary outage, a technical glitch, or media hype. But as the hours passed and the tanks remained empty, the refrigerators stayed full but the toilets ran dry, and the first child fell ill with a fever from dehydration, the silence gave way to panic.
Read the full story by Luis Antonio García Sepúlveda in Spanish on Rio Doce
