Mexico City drought causes rainwater catchment basin to catch fire and burn for a day

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City’s drought and water shortage is so bad that one of the capital’s rainwater catchment basins has caught fire, scorching 75 acres of dried-up vegetation. The catchment basins, like the one that burned Tuesday on the city’s northwest side, are meant to hold excess water from storm drains. Normally, they are so green from previous rains that residents used to use them as soccer fields or for grazing animals. But the central Mexico valley has seen below-average rainfall this winter. The situation is so bad that reservoirs in the city’s outskirts are at about one-third of capacity.