Tijuana Water Outage Planned for November 7

Beginning at six o'clock in the morning on November 7, approximately 95 percent of the greater Tijuana area will be without running water. The service is expected to resume normally 12 hours later, according to the state’s commission of public services in Tijuana (CESPT, or Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Tijuana).

However, the notice warns that remote areas of Tijuana may not see water from the tap until sometime on November 8.

Past events such as this have taken a bit longer than estimated, for various incidental issues. The reason for this upcoming period of dry pipes is for scheduled maintenance at Presa Carrizo, a dam and reservoir approximately 25 miles east of Tijuana, just off of the free road from Tijuana to Tecate.

Carrizo is one of two dams and reservoirs that supply water to the greater Tijuana area, the other being the Rodriguez Dam and reservoir, approximately 15 miles southeast of downtown Tijuana. The reservoir at Rodriguez is currently at a much lower level than in recent years, while Carrizo remains a robust source of water.

Most tijuanense households keep a supply of cubetas (empty five-gallon plastic buckets) and fill them with water in advance of planned outages. The water is used sparingly to flush toilets or for sponge baths for a day or two.

In the past 20 years, CESPT has become better with limiting down-time for maintenance and supplying citizens with plenty of advance notice in order to prepare for short periods of faucet-less water.