In Mexico City, women water harvesters help make up for drought and dicey public water system

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gliding above her neighborhood in a cable car on a recent morning, Sonia Estefanía Palacios Díaz scanned a sea of blue and black water tanks, tubes and cables looking for rain harvesting systems.

“There’s one!” she said, pointing out a black tank hooked up to a smaller blue unit with connecting tubes snaking up to the roof where water is collected.

“I’m always looking for different rainwater harvesting systems,” she said, smiling. “I’m also always looking for places to install one.”

Driven by prolonged drought and inconsistent public water delivery, many Mexico City residents are turning to rainwater. Pioneering company Isla Urbana, which does both nonprofit and for-profit work, has installed more than 40,000 rain catchment systems across Mexico since the company was founded 15 years ago. And Mexico City’s government has invested in the installation of 70,000 systems since 2019, still a drop in the bucket for the sprawling metropolis of around 9 million.

But there's little education and limited resources to maintain the systems after installation, leading the systems to fall into disuse or for residents to sell off the parts.

Enter Palacios Díaz and a group of other women who make up the cooperative Pixcatl, which means harvest of water in the Indigenous Nahuatl language.

In lower-income areas like Iztapalapa — Mexico City’s most populous borough — the group tries to keep systems functioning while also educating residents on how to maintain them. That includes brainstorming their own designs and providing residents with low-cost options for additional materials.

Palacios Díaz has lived with water scarcity in Iztapalapa as far back as she can remember. “Here, people will get in line starting at 3 in the morning to get water (from distribution trucks) up until 2 in the afternoon,” she said from her mother’s home. “There was a time in which we went for more than a month without a regular supply of water.”

Earlier this year, the reservoirs that supply the capital were perilously low. Authorities reduced the amount of water being released and neighborhoods not accustomed to water scarcity faced a new reality.

Entering the rainy season, most of Mexico was in moderate to severe drought. Mexico’s reservoirs are beginning to approach half their capacity, but they haven't filled by much, according to recent reports by the National Water Commission.

The country depends on the rains — which normally peter out in October — to fill the reservoirs, but the drought has taken them so low that that might take years.

That's encouraged many Mexicans like Palacios Díaz to turn to rainwater harvesting.

At the height of the pandemic, she taught classes on urban farming and water harvesting at a local community space. It wasn’t until her students said they wanted to learn how to install and understand their own systems that she seriously considered taking a government course. After enrolling in a training program in 2022 to become an installer, she met other young women from the city interested in water harvesting systems and they formed the cooperative.

Near the skirt of a volcano on the fringes of Iztapalapa, Lizbeth Esther Pineda Castro, another member of the cooperative, and Palacios Díaz adjusted a ladder to reach the roof of a small house. The two-story home inherited by Sara Huitzil Morales and her niece sits in Iztapalapa's Buenavista neighborhood.

Huitzil's mother had qualified for a free water harvesting system from Mexico City’s government in 2021. After the installation, Huitzil requested Pixcatl's maintenance since she wasn't sure how to take care of the system.

Sporting their navy polos with the Pixcatl logo, Pineda and Palacios Díaz cleared debris off the roof so the system only collects fresh rain.

“We also add a little bit of soap and chlorine to clean the pipes,” said Palacios Díaz as she swept the liquid down a connecting tube that leads to the harvesting system.

Downstairs, they joined the other members of the cooperative in a courtyard to look at the giant 2,500-liter water tank, enough to serve Huitzil's needs for several months when filled. The colossal container stood nearly as tall as Palacios Díaz. Another cooperative member cleared a filter of leaves and dirt.

Last, Palacios Díaz plopped in a couple of chlorine pills to clean and disinfect the water. The frequency of the entire maintenance process depends on several factors, including how much water is in the tank, how much has been used, and whether it has rained.

Huitzil said before the harvesting system, she endured water shortages and rationing. The publicly available water was consistently dirty and “dark like chocolate." She often used the water that remained from doing laundry to clean the courtyard. Sometimes when dirty water would arrive, she would put it in buckets and wait for the dirt to settle to the bottom, using the cleanest for showering.

The system has transformed her daily use of water, and she doesn't have to think twice about whether it's safe. The system initially uses six filters, plus three more if the water is to be used for drinking.

“The water is good, it's so good!" said Huitzil. “My clothes come out very clean and the water is sweet. You can even harvest it to be cleaner to drink.”

With over 1.8 million residents, Iztapalapa has been one of the primary beneficiaries of Mexico City’s harvesting system program. But after two years, the city stopped giving away free systems when many residents, facing economic hardship and sometimes struggling to maintain the systems, sold off their parts.

“It should be easy to maintain, but it’s tedious,” Palacios Diaz said. “Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a scenario in which we not only have environmental problems, but economic problems."

Loreta Castro Reguera, an architecture professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University, focuses much of her work on water and urban design. She said rainwater harvesting is a great solution because during Mexico's rainy season residents can use rainwater instead of water from the Cutzamala system — a reservoir that provides water to Mexico City and the State of Mexico.

Palacios Díaz dreams of rainwater systems in markets, malls, and other community spaces. The cooperative is also working on designs personalized for their clients' needs — whether for a low-cost system or to fulfill a greater demand for water.

As women, she and the other members of Pixcatl want to set an example for those who want to get involved in water harvesting.

“I think it’s really beautiful we can inspire young girls and show women in another context,” said another member, Abigail López Durán, “that we can also use tools and aren’t afraid to get hurt.”

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Some vegetables and lettuces grow in community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Jose Saldana sprays water from a rainwater harvest system on a cilantro crops at a community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Abigail Lopez, a member of cooperative Pixcatl, cleans a filter from a water collector system at a community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Jamin Martinez, a member of cooperative Pixcatl, inspects a water collector at a community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Members of cooperative Pixcatl inspect the main tank of a water collector system at a community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Abigail Lopez, a member of cooperative Pixcatl, removes a filter from a water collector system at a community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Lizbeth Pineda, a member of cooperative Pixcatl, changes the purification pills of a water collector system at a community garden in Mexico City, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Jazmin Martinez Laredo, above, and Abigail Lopez Duran, with the dog Nala, clean the pipes and filters where they collect rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, the Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Sonia Estefania Palacios Diaz places chlorine tablets in the tank where they collect rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, on Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Jazmin Martinez Laredo cleans the pipes and filters where they collect rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, on Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Jazmin Martinez Laredo, cleans the pipes and filters where they collect rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, on Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Abigail Lopez Duran cleans the roof of a house to collect rainwater in the neighborhood of Iztapalpa in Mexico City, Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Sara Huitzil Morales washes the dishes in her house where she collects rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, on Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Sonia Estefania Palacios Diaz, left, Sara Huitzil Morales, right, owner of the house, clean the roof of a house to collect rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, on Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Water storage units sit on rooftops in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Sonia Estefania Palacios Diaz, left, and Lizbeth E. Pineda Castro, right, clean the roof of a house used to collect rainwater in the Iztapalpa neighborhood in Mexico City, Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/ Marco Ugarte)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump wasn’t harmed by Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt as he golfed near his Florida club. But the second attack on his life in barely two months is likely to further unsettle an election cycle already marked by upheaval.

The man suspected in the incident, Ryan Wesley Routh, camped outside the golf courses in West Palm Beach with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, according to court documents filed Monday. He is accused of lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent opened fire, thwarting the potential attack.

Here are five things to know about what happened and where the investigation stands:

Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction for possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges are possible.

The suspect lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving in 2018 to Kaaawa, Hawaii. He and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.

Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday. He had previously posted frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion.

“Fight and die to stop aggression,” he posted on X in February 2023 about Ukraine. “Everyone should be outraged and helping.” In a video circulating online Routh said, “This is about good versus evil.”

He also wrote separately on X, “I am going to fight and die for Ukraine” and even traveled there.

Video shot by the AP showed Routh at a small demonstration in Kyiv’s Independence Square in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the country. A placard he was holding said: “We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50+ years. End Russia for our kids.” Routh wore a blue vest with the U.S., flag on the back.

That same day, Routh also visited a makeshift memorial to “Foreigners killed by Putin.”

But Routh never served in the Ukrainian army or worked with its military, said Oleksandr Shahuri of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command.

Routh's politics, meanwhile, don't appear consistently aligned to one party or the other.

In June 2020, he offered a post on X directed at then-President Trump to say he would win reelection if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct. That year, he also posted in support of the Democratic presidential campaign of then-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has since left the party and endorsed Trump.

However, in recent years, his posts suggest he soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In July, following the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, Routh urged Biden and Harris to visit those wounded in the shooting at the hospital and to attend the funeral of a former fire chief killed at the rally.

Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic Party primary in March 2024. Federal campaign finance records show Routh made 19 small political donations totaling $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address through a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

Records show that while living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. The top FBI official in the Miami, Jeffrey B. Veltri, said Routh has numerous felony charges for stolen goods between 1997 and 2010. He also was the subject of a closed investigation in 2019 when someone reported he was a felon in possession of a firearm, but Veltri said the tipster would not confirm making the report.

Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.

Authorities spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course around 400 to 500 yards from where Trump was playing. As the former president was moving through the fifth hole's fairway, an agent who was visually sweeping the area of the sixth hole's green saw the subject, armed with what he perceived to be a rifle, and immediately discharged his firearm, said acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. of the U.S. Secret Service.

Rowe said Routh “did not have a line of sight to the former president” and did not fire at Secret Service agents before fleeing.

Routh sped away before being captured in a neighboring county. Body camera footage of Routh’s arrest showed him walking backward with his hands over his head on the side of a road before being handcuffed and led away.

The suspect is believed to have been positioned at the tree line of the golf course from about 1:59 a.m. to 1:31 p.m. Sunday. A digital camera, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food were recovered from the area.

Trump’s protective detail has been higher than some of his peers because of his high visibility and his campaign to seek the White House again. His security was bolstered days before the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania because of a threat on Trump’s life from Iran, U.S. officials said.

Trump initially posted: “I AM SAFE AND WELL!” and subsequently praised the Secret Service for protecting him.

But the former president pivoted Monday to the politics surrounding the incident claiming — without evidence — that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris comments that he is a threat to democracy had inspired the latest attempt on his life.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at," Trump told Fox News Digital. In a subsequent post on his social media site Monday, Trump wrote that the left “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” He said “it will only get worse,” then veered into comments about immigration, even though there is no evidence immigrants were involved in the incident.

The former president made those comments despite his own long history of inflammatory campaign rhetoric and advocacy for jailing or prosecuting his political enemies.

Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in the presidential election, posted on X that she was "glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.”

Biden also avoided politics in his reaction. He said Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help” and urging Congress to provide additional resources to help the agency.

“America has suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin’s bullet,” Biden said at the start of an address to the National HBCU Week Conference in Philadelphia. “It solves nothing. It just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen.”

Trump hasn't announced any changes to his schedule and is speaking live on X on Monday night from his Mar-a-Lago resort to launch his sons’ crypto platform. Harris met with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at the 1.3 million-member group’s headquarters in Washington.

Still, a presidential race already rocked by Biden giving up his reelection bid and the first attack on Trump now is being further shaped by a second one. The leaders of a congressional bipartisan task force investigating Trump's Pennsylvania shooting said they have requested a briefing by the Secret Service.

“We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said in a statement.

Weissert reported from Washington.

Ryan Wesley Routh holds up a banner during a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Photos that show an AK-47 rifle, a backpack and a Go-Pro camera on a fence outside Trump International Golf Club taken after an apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, are displayed during a news conference at the Palm Beach County Main Library, Sunday. Sept. 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Stephany Matat)

This photo provided by the Martin County Sheriff's Office shows Sheriff's vehicles surrounding an SUV on the northbound I-95 in Martin County on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff's Office via AP)