MEXICO CITY, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Mexico City will launch a 760-million-peso (58-million-U.S. dollar) water-saving plan to ensure that water shortages seen early this year will not repeat in the first half of next year, the city's mayor Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday.
Ebrard, asking for help from the 20 million people who live in the city and its conurbation, said the program seeks to reduce citizens' average daily consumption of water from the present 307 liters to 184.3 liters.
The city suffered a series of water supply cuts during the first half of this year, peaked with the suspension of half of the city's water supply during the second weekend of April.
The city's water supply comes from Cutzamala, a reservoir in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero, administered by the National Water Commission.
Ebrard said the city will help residents replace shower heads, bath taps, cisterns and storage tanks with water-saving ones, estimating that it could save 6.43 million cubic meters of water a month.
He said water thus saved from August to next May would represent two months of additional water for the city.
City offices will also seek ways to cut their water consumption by 20 percent this year, and make even steeper cuts in 2010, he said.
Also on Thursday, federal legislator Jesus Manuel Patron Montalvo, who heads the Water Resources Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, said 40 percent of the city's water is lost in transport and a similar amount in leaks.
"This situation cannot be faced unilaterally, it is a matter that must be tackled by a broader group that includes state and federal authorities," he said.
He urged the city to work closely with the state of Mexico that surrounds it in solving the problem.
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