Water, Food and Welfare

Water is a natural good with the characteristic of being interpreted in different forms due to its transversality (Some examples of the importance of water based on the multiple ways in which it can be interpreted are, among others: an ecological way, establishing it as an essential factor for the sustaining of life; an economic one, through the exegesis of considering it an essential input in the provision of material goods which constitute the basis of social welfare; an institutional one, interpreted as an element essential to the formation of collective prosperity; a social one, as a vehicle for stability which allows the cohesion and reproduction of the system; a sanitary one, regarding it as a determining factor in the quality of life of the population). Of course, they are all equally important and occur simultaneously, which in turn highlights how significant and essential its availability is. Water availability is at the center of public welfare formation and prosperity evolution in all society. Nevertheless, it is a topic of growing public and institutional interest in the case of arid and semiarid societies, and those with heterogeneity in its distribution, such as the Mexican one. This is because the allocation processes to be encouraged should yield the maximum effect of public welfare from its exploitation process. This chapter puts forth the need to supplement water management capacities in Mexico through the incorporation of alternative analytical efforts such as those of water footprint and virtual water, which may strengthen the processes to identify the best practices in the exploitation of this resource, according to the potential supply sources and may foster the configuration of new arrangements for the required public infrastructure and investments development that aims at reducing vulnerability in water availability, derived from the institutional strategy that consolidated over the long term.

The use of the water resource is closely related to the geographical situation of the territory, but above all to the type and degree of socioeconomic development of countries, which is why in order to analyze water footprint in Mexico it is necessary to put the country’s characteristics into context. This chapter presents a general view of the country and puts it into the World and Latin-American contexts based on the main socioeconomic indicators, highlighting the unequal income distribution, the rural bias of poverty and the particular importance of the agricultural sector. This sector’s heterogeneity, as well as its relevance as a water user and an important cause of its deterioration are mentioned. We also mention that notwithstanding the importance of irrigation, to a good extent with underground water, the most important crops in Mexican people’s diet is produced in rain-fed lands, and a high percentage of both irrigated and rain-fed fields are devoted to livestock raising. Mexico’s growing dependence on food imports and the paradox that this brings environmental benefits is also commented upon.

This chapter ponders how the agricultural sector uses water for food in Mexico. It is based on a review of the geographic, social, and political conditions under which the Mexican countryside produces, emphasizing its heterogeneity and the presence of an external water footprint due to the importation of agricultural products, cereals are the products with a higher content of virtual water imported by Mexico, and although this, on the one hand, saves water, reduces soil loss and water pollution because of a lower use of agrochemicals; on the other hand, food security and sovereignty are undermined. Farming and livestock raising activities are the main users of the water and soil resources, and are the most important causes for their deterioration; altogether, these sectors use 78 % of extracted water: 76 % by agriculture and 2 % for the cattle industry. Notwithstanding the importance of areas on irrigation, the production of basic foods in Mexico, corn, beans, and wheat, depends largely on the production from rain-fed zones. Only eight states were found to contribute to the national farming and ranching producing a higher water percentage than the amount they have in concession for agricultural use, and the rest of the federative entities take hold of a higher percentage of the resource in relation to what they provide in agricultural product.

This chapter presents the effects on water resources created by the introduction of an irrigation modernization policy. The impact caused by the increase of irrigation coverage tends to have negative effects on water stocks because of its technological characteristics and productive practices in the primary sector.

Water security (WS) evolved toward the protection against floods, droughts, plagues, environmental services protection, health preservation, and conflict negotiation. The part of human and gender security deepening, as well as environmental security proposing a great (HUGE) security. This overcomes the political-military vision where water was used as a weapon. A combination of market failures, inefficient institutions, and lack of governance have aggravated conflicts and provoked violent outbreaks. Specialists have insisted on political mechanisms and negotiations between governments and those affected, which have brought about international treaties and water regimes. Growing citizen complaints about deterioration in quality and water shortage have transformed the demands for water into a basic human right, making a distinction between use value (survival) and exchange value (merchandise), with progressive tariffs for saving. Thus, WS is oriented toward people and peace, where participative governance and pacific negotiation of conflicts drive the recovery and protection of ecosystems as the lead of sociopolitical practice and an indicator of socio-environmental progress, and where science offers methodologies, methods, and proposals for norms and laws that are capable to protect the planet’s future and the survival of humankind.

This paper studies the characteristics of water markets in Mexico under the analysis of water and food security. Water management functions are related to the mechanisms of water allocation for the different areas of use: food production, environmental services preservation, social welfare promotion by ensuring direct water consumption to citizens, and economic prosperity by its productive use. Regular and stable water supply of sufficient quality, wastewater collection and treatment, and billing and collection of water consumption correspond to the Operating Organizations of Drinking Water, Sewage and Drainage. Water is a good with no substitutes, it is transversal and it constitutes a natural monopoly. The phenomenon of institutional evolution which results in a scenario of water resources management system fragility, characterized by the lack of coordination between different management levels related to water policy, is analyzed in the first part of this chapter. The phenomenon of financial sustainability required for water and food security promotion is discussed in the second part.

Water availability and sufficiency to adequately meet the different objectives of its use are not only related to the existence of accessible sources and utilization capacity; use practices and competition between different sectors and regions are also determinants to the apparent scarcity. A water management institutional strengthening process requires recognition of the exploitation forms that have been consolidated as a result of federal institutional evolution. References to the federal water use pattern consider blue (color) water, but the potential and incentive structures to modify the use of green and gray water are rejected.

Food production and consumption are key activities in our societies. Paradoxically, despite the technological progress over the past 100 years, it has not been able to secure sufficient and healthy feeding for everyone. The validity of food crisis has placed the different dimensions of food consumption at the center of attention. The aim of this chapter is to relate theoretically and empirically, three of the considered dimensions: food sovereignty, water security, and change in the pattern of food consumption. In the first part, the theoretical discussion of the relationship of these dimensions is presented, placing at the center of the argument the concept of food security. The second part contains an exercise that estimates the effect of changes in food consumption, food sovereignty, and water security in Mexico in 1992 and 2010, using data from the national survey of household income and expenditure. The results indicate the importance of valuing more than one of the dimensions involved in the realization of the food right.

As a scarce resource and a public commodity, water and its management generate social, political, and economic problems. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate what the Mexican conditions regarding water availability and the allocated usage and the conflicts that water stress can lead to.

An important component of water supply of the country is the supply from groundwater sources. They correspond to the use of blue water and they complement the surface water supply. Unlike surface supply sources, for which there is abundant information and analysis, groundwater resources are an area of water management that needs institutional strengthening by increasing their knowledge. Despite this, the diagnoses of this type of resources provide clues that indicate a growing overexploitation and competition, which show the results of institutional arrangements that have promoted the use of water in the country.

This chapter discusses the linkages and the implications of the potential presence of large-scale hydrometeorological events in Mexico and the relevance of the water footprint methodology to strengthen the institutional management capabilities that tend to mitigate the impacts on the welfare of the population at local levels.

An algorithm to compute crop water requirements in the irrigation districts of Mexico is presented based on climatological data from where irrigation needs are obtained. The method relies on the soil water balance where the main inputs are rainfall and irrigation and the outputs are deep drainage or deep percolation, and crop evapotranspiration. The method to compute each variable of the soil water balance is outlined as well as irrigation needs. A computer program was utilized, DRIEGO1, from where crop’s water needs are deduced. The drought index and evapotranspiration data for the main irrigation districts of the country are presented in both graphical and tabular ways. According to the results it can be seen that the crop evapotranspiration is strongly dependent on the climatology showing significant difference for the same crop for different places.

This chapter starts with the description of water pollution in relation to its use, the interrelation of contaminants with the water environment and the existence, as well with the lack of pollutant concentration regulations in water and its environment. It is described how the study of pollutant dynamics and decision-making for its control in the water environment can be performed with greater success when considering the entire basin. The gray water footprint concept is summarized, defined by Hoekstra/Chapagain (2008), and then some situations are discussed where, from the point of view of the author, this tool may use to better understand the impact of direct and indirect pollution caused by men and to obtain useful values for decision-making regarding pollutant loads and uses of water in basins.

Mining comprises the development phase, start-up and stripping activities for surface mining; it requires the construction of access roads, the work construction of water supply and electricity. In the first phase, the operation stage includes mineral extraction; the second phase involves processes of benefit and disposal of liquid and solid waste. The last stage involves the restoration and rehabilitation of the site. An underground mine design comprises three aspects: development, preparation, and exploitation; this type of mining allows to exploit seams that lie beneath the surface. It leads to lower noise emissions and dust is limited to the externally generated. In contrast, it requires greater technical complexities, it is more complicated, costly, and dangerous for the miners, so there is the tendency to abandon underground mining and to prefer open-pit mining (Buitelaar 2001). Currently, the largest mining activity takes place in the north-central region of Mexico; some estimates calculate that metal mining uses 53.5 million m³ (Mm³) of water, from surface or underground sources (López et al. 2001) and the volume of wastewater generated is estimated at 26.2 Mm³, which is poured into water bodies or municipal drainage networks. Thus, mining affects quality and quantity of the liquid. Acid mine drainage is present in underground and open-pit mining and it is not only present in operating mines, but also after their closure. It is considered as the most serious and persistent mining environmental problem.

Virtual water (VW) content refers to the volume of water used to produce a good or service that is susceptible to be traded internationally. A significant feature that characterizes external trade of the country is the fact that virtual water imports exceed exports (Arreguín 2007), which has resulted in a purely accidental circumstance, but whose discovery allows to consider that it is possible to formulate public policy incentives to guide the best use of water resources through better allocation of water and more accurate selection of productive practices. With the inclusion of agriculture in NAFTA, food production and consumption in Mexico were closely linked to the largest food producer worldwide; on the one hand, imports of cereals and oilseeds were favored, but on the other hand, the production and export of vegetables and some fruits changed water use and stress. VW volume imports increased by 78 %.

In this chapter, the water footprints (WFs) of corn, wheat, sorghum, and barley are estimated in Irrigation District 011 Alto Rio Lerma (DR011), Guanajuato, Mexico, cereals that cover 90 % of the cultivated area, a little more of the water extracted, and generate 70 % of the production value of DR011. The DRiego and Cropwat Programs were used and their results are compared with those obtained by Hoekstra for Guanajuato. The results show that the WF estimates are very sensitive to performance and that a low WF does not indicate the actual water use. Wheat WF is virtually identical for Cropwat and Hoeskstra and it differs by less than 10 % with that obtained with DRiego. It is considered that estimates of barley WF obtained from DRiego are more logical, because in Guanajuato it is planted mostly using irrigation and with greater yields than rainfed. For the vast differences between the estimates of maize and sorghum obtained with both programs and comparing them with Hoekstra, there is no convincing explanation. These differences are even greater when considering blue and green WFs.

This chapter presents the bovine milk production status in the Comarca Lagunera, arid region of north–central Mexico, which has had a major agricultural/livestock and industrial development, being livestock the activity that stands out. In 2011, 2,274,797 l of milk were produced, which represented 21.2 % of the national production. This production is developed intensively, in an area characterized by shortages and water quality. The objective of the chapter is to determine bovine milk water footprint and the pressure of this production on water resources in the region.

In this chapter, the current characteristics of the livestock sector in Mexico, the most important livestock systems, its technification levels, and productive methods are described. The water footprints of beef, pork, poultry meat, egg, and milk are estimated. It is mentioned that Mexico presents the same changes that have taken place globally in relation to livestock production patterns and consumption. It is emphasized that the heterogeneity of livestock systems and the lack of specific and reliable information represent significant obstacles for the estimation of the water footprint of the products analyzed. The different effects of trade openness on the production and consumption of animal products from different species and livestock systems are identified, and the estimates obtained in this chapter are compared with those calculated by Hoekstra for these products.

This chapter raises the incongruity between the dynamism of the bottled drinks sector and shortages, quality, and water management in Mexico. The study questions the importance of the bottling sector and the consumption pattern of its products, and it approaches the virtual water content of the products of this industry based on Hoekstra (2010) and Garrido (2010), so that their magnitudes can be compared.