Global Drought Crisis
2024 Mexico Drought, Aquatech Amsterdam, AquAI, Whatsapp Community, Instagram and TikTok for Youth...
Our latest episode dives into the story of the 2024 drought in Mexico, exploring how it was experienced and the challenges it brought.
Nature, climate, and humanity can adapt—but they need time.
A 1% annual change may seem small, but over the long term, it becomes highly significant.
Consider the following scenarios:
A 1% annual overexploitation of groundwater resources
A 1% annual increase in population and demand
A 1% annual decrease in groundwater availability
A 1% annual loss of net water storage in reservoirs due to sedimentation
At some point, these trends intersect, and demand exceeds supply—because the available supply is fixed.
The smaller the gap between water availability and demand, the greater the risks we face when nature and climate create erratic rainfall patterns.
Mexico’s population growth highlights the increasing strain on water resources:
1900: 13 million
1950: 25 million
2000: 98 million
2025: 130 million
2050: 150 million (forecast)
Despite experiencing one of the rainiest seasons last year, which alleviated some of the stress, Mexico remains under severe water pressure.
This episode features Juan Murillo from Veolia, who sheds light on the water crisis in Mexico.
He shares insights into initiatives like desalination and water reuse, which are being explored as solutions.
However, these efforts often face political barriers, with short-term decision-making hindering long-term benefits.
Juan also shares his concern about the upcoming season starting in March-April 2025.
He recalls memories from his childhood, when water availability meant showers were limited to specific dates.
He was shocked to witness many cities in 2024 relying on water trucks to provide clean water for basic needs—a scenario he once thought was limited to emerging countries.
This crisis is now affecting us all.
English & Spanish
As I understand it, Spanish speakers often tend to understand English.
However, English speakers rarely take the opportunity to enjoy our Spanish episodes.
Fortunately, we are lucky to have our AI agent, AquAI, who provides an alternative version of the Spanish episodes in English.
I’ve created a couple of episodes with AquAI—one about the number 40, focusing on Water Geopolitics in Spain, and the newly released episode 41 mentioned earlier.
I’m quite surprised by some parts of the discussion. Give it a listen, it includes the insights I guided them to incorporate, but also some reflections of their own that, honestly, are kind of “scary” because it is so accurate…
In the near future, we plan to offer full translations of our episodes into English, which will significantly enhance the value of our platform.
Below is the link to the insights. These type of episodes will be included on the MB-AI channel.
General Stuff
In this section, I’ll highlight notable congresses, webinars, and more. This week…
I’ve successfully claimed my badge to attend Aquatech Amsterdam 2025. If you do the same, please let me know—I’d be delighted to meet you in person!
I loved the approach of including a "Convince Your Boss" strategy to attend Aquatech, as this is a common barrier we often encounter (link below).
Many professionals are genuinely interested in joining The Water MBA, but they get stuck in approval processes with their management and HR departments.
The mindset of continuous learning and improvement is still not widely embraced, but the change cannot be contained.
If any of you face similar limitations, I'd be happy to discuss the blocking point, and I’m 100% sure you’ll secure the necessary approval.
New Features
We have considerable control within the water industry and among its professionals; we know each other, and the interactions are fairly structured and predictable.
One of our biggest challenges, however, is figuring out how to make our industry more visible.
As I shared in a previous newsletter, my appearance on a podcast unrelated to water—focused on entrepreneurship and other topics—will serve as an opportunity to bring water into other conversations and forums (to be published on February)
To connect with younger generations and those outside the water sector, I’ve decided to maintain a presence on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
These networks are more aligned with the interests of younger audiences and touch on aspects beyond water.
Perhaps a small but meaningful gesture could be encouraging your kids, nephews, or friends who use these platforms (and aren’t as active on LinkedIn) to follow The Water MBA profile. Let’s see what we can achieve in the long term.
This isn’t about gaining “clients,” but rather about staying visible and keeping water issues in the minds of some users simply by being present.
Already available and added to our Linktree.
WhatsApp Community
This week, I created a private WhatsApp community group.
Unlike family groups, school parent groups, or similar chats, the purpose of this group is to share updates and insights on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
The group is restricted from general posting—perhaps once a year, we might open it up for users to share queries or contribute.
I believe that these types of chats can be useful in the long term, especially if we succeed in bringing together professionals with diverse expertise from different countries.
Over time, this could become a valuable source of collaboration and growth.
Already available to join and added to our Linktree below.