Sistema Cutzamala

The Cutzamala System is one of the largest drinking-water works in the world: a chain of dams, pumping stations, and aqueducts that lifts water more than 1,000 meters uphill from the Cutzamala River basin, in Michoacán and the State of Mexico, into the Valley of Mexico. It provides roughly a quarter of the water used by the Mexico City metropolitan area, which is why droughts affecting its dams make national news.