Going Down? Sinkholes Threaten Mexican Capital

MEXICO CITY — As if life-shortening pollution, hours-long traffic jams and kidnappings weren't bad enough, Mexico City residents now have to worry about the earth opening up and swallowing them.

As the summer rainy season hits, concern is growing that hundreds of cracks, holes and fractures that line this city could open up with disastrous consequences in a metropolitan area of 20 million people.

The fear became reality earlier this month in a Mexico City slum when heavy rainfall ruptured a festering fissure in the street, swallowing a car and a curious onlooker who was killed when he tumbled into the muddy depths more than 60 feet below.

Mexico City's latest urban ill stems from its unique geography and history. Built on a drained lake bed after the Spanish destroyed the Venice-like city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico City has been sinking steadily for centuries, falling the equivalent of a three-story building since 1900.

At the same time the sinking megalopolis has been slaking its thirst by draining the underground aquifer beneath the city. And if that wasn't enough, the city also sits over a maze of geological faults and abandoned mines.

The underground cracks and crevices are exacerbated by rain, which also threatens to overwhelm city's faulty drainage system.

A massive pipe, the Grand Canal, is meant to funnel waste out of the bowl-like valley over which Mexico City is sprawled. Experts say a particularly heavy rain could trigger a catastrophic flood of filthy sewage.

"When the Aztecs moved here, they could have never imagined the problems (this location) would generate," said Martín Argueta of the Mexican Geological Service. "We aren't going to get rid of these cracks, but we need to learn how to manage the risk."

Much of the danger stems from the unregulated growth in Mexico City that saw makeshift neighborhoods extend into the most fragile areas of the valley.

Government officials often promoted the unregulated growth in return for captive votes. Engineers have been calling for more building restrictions, but with most of the metro area carpeted with homes and businesses, it may be too late.

Perhaps most at risk is the sprawling neighborhood of Iztapalapa. Bigger than Mexican cities Guadalajara and Monterrey, Iztapalapa is home to some of Mexico City's poorest — and unluckiest — residents.

More than 200 cracks threaten 10,000 homes in Iztapalapa, due to a combination of underground faults and draining of the aquifer.

But despite all the water sucked from the ground beneath them, Iztapalapa residents suffer chronic drinking water shortages and the liquid often must be trucked in.

For nearly 30 years, David Pérez Figueroa has lived next to what became a deadly sinkhole. Throughout his neighborhood of unfinished concrete homes and narrow streets, buildings pitch forward at odd angles and cracks spread unnaturally up walls.

Pérez said he and other neighbors worried constantly about what began as a crack in the street about eight years ago.

"We told the authorities, we sent letters, we met with officials, but they never paid attention to us," Pérez said. "They knew this problem existed, but they never fixed it."

Pérez was hosting a graduation party at the hall he rents for special events when the earth opened on July 7. One of his guest's cars slipped into the crevice. He said he yelled at 19-year-old Jorge Ramirez to move away from the widening hole, but Ramirez fell to his death while peering over the edge.

City workers will fill the gaping opening with bentonite, a clay-based substance that expands when it comes in contact with water. Officials in Iztapalapa say they only have money to fill a small percentage of the neighborhood's 200 cracks.

The city's infrastructure woes have stoked a feud between the conservative federal government and the left-leaning city government.

It is more fallout from last year's bitterly contested presidential election, which pitted former Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador against conservative Felipe Calderón. Relations between Calderón, who eventually won the election, and new Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, widely considered Lopez Obrador's protégé, have been frosty ever since.

Calderón has used the situation to sharply criticize city leaders, who he says haven't invested enough in infrastructure improvements.

The city's problems threaten to "cancel this great metropolis' viability in the long term, and even worse, if we don't fix this soon, we could see the worst flood in the modern history of Mexico City with catastrophic consequences for everyone," Calderón said.

City officials are frustrated that federal officials haven't released disaster relief funds to fill in the cracks and abandoned mines or allowed the city to restructure its debt, which would free up more money for improvements.

Ebrard defended the city's track record, saying it is fixing its drainage system, including building four strategically placed pumping stations to aid the flow of waste out of the city.

But as the politicians bicker, Pérez says residents in Iztapalapa continue to hold their breath every time it rains.