• IMPACT Old water infrastructure along with a historic drought are hitting an important industry cluster at Tijuana’s Otay Mesa where around 200 factories -50% of total- are reporting a faltering supply that directly hits their operations, according to local business representatives.
• PROBLEMS Just south of San Diego, Tijuana (population 1.3 million) depends on water supply from the Colorado River basin but 3 out of 8 water pumps upon which the city depends (located on the Eastern part of Baja California state) are not working coupled with a 20 year historic drought.
• RISK “We’ve already had problems with blackouts, we are having problems with water arriving intermittently. These are issues….an investor comes and sees. As this becomes more acute it would mean problems”, says Salvador Díaz González, chair of Tijuana’s Otay Mesa industrial association.
• LOCATION Tijuana’s Otay Mesa sector is a key industrial location benefiting from the second busiest commercial Port of Entry on the US-Mexico border just behind Nuevo Laredo-Laredo. In 2018, 962,000 northbound trucks crossed into the US through Otay Mesa in 2018.
