“Prosperous Mexican farms suck up water, leaving villages high and dry”, 19 May 2016

…But the well in San Antonio de Lourdes, a village in Guanajuato…went dry years ago. The village itself, depleted by poverty and migration, seems to be drying up…But a half­hour’s drive away, fertile farms pump water from deep underground to irrigate fields that grow broccoli and lettuce for American supermarkets…Every year, farms bore farther into the aquifer, and scientists warn that as they go deeper they are reaching tainted water…According to the W.H.O., long­term exposure to arsenic at those levels can cause skin, lung and other cancers, and can have neurological and cardiovascular effects…Farms account for about 82 percent of all water use and do not have to pay for it…