If you discovered the water outage standing in your bathroom, shampoo already in your hair, you were not alone. Across Tijuana and Playas de Rosarito, thousands of residents learned about this week’s shutdown the same way — mid-shower, mid-dish, or mid-laundry cycle.
This was no surprise leak or broken valve. It was a planned, large-scale water interruption affecting roughly 691 neighborhoods, triggered by long-overdue repairs on the Florido–Aguaje Aqueduct, one of the region’s main arteries for potable water.
The shutdown began just after midnight on Thursday, January 8, as crews from the Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Tijuana (CESPT) closed the system to replace nearly 250 meters of aging pipeline. The aqueduct, originally installed in the early 1980s, had reached a point where patchwork repairs were no longer enough.
CESPT officials described the move with a phrase that quickly caught public attention: “two days without water for 25 years of tranquility.” The promise is that once this section is reinforced, the system should operate more reliably for decades — fewer emergency breaks, fewer surprise outages, and better pressure overall.
The interruption itself is expected to last approximately 54 hours, followed by a gradual return of service. Water does not snap back instantly in a city this size. Pressure must rebuild, storage tanks refill, and air purge from the lines. For many households, especially in higher elevations, full service may take an additional 24 to 36 hours.
In the meantime, daily routines were quickly reshuffled. Residents filled buckets and tubs, postponed laundry, skipped car washes, and mastered the art of the five-minute “military shower.” Water delivery services saw an uptick in calls, while convenience stores moved more jugs than usual.
Authorities say water should begin returning early Saturday morning, with most areas seeing service by Sunday evening. As always, timing will depend on location, elevation, and neighborhood demand.
For a region accustomed to living carefully with water, the shutdown was inconvenient but familiar. Still, it served as a reminder of how much daily life depends on infrastructure most people never see — until it stops working.
If the repairs hold, this weekend’s inconvenience may turn into a long stretch of quieter, more predictable water service. And that next uninterrupted shower might feel just a little more appreciated.
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