Water Policy in Mexico

This chapter provides the overall context and setting for the volume. In this chapter the scope of the book is established along with the way each chapter addresses its objectives and reach. It also provides an overview of the chapters underlining the links and continuity among them. A lesson learned section is provided, summarizing the lessons from the different chapters in the book in a way that readers can learn about the concluding notes presented by the authors in each section.

In Mexico, there are wide conditions in terms of the sources and utilization of water resources. A brief description is presented, on the first part, to show technology level, water institutions, and water legislation through different periods of Mexico, showing the evolution of the water sector in the country. The current situation of the water sector is described based on an administrative zoning. Since agriculture is the main user, an emphasis is made on the description of its hydraulic infrastructure available. Water governance is accentuated due to its importance in terms of the continuous decrease of water availability and continuous increase in water demand. The future of the water sector is analyzed in terms of the commitments of Mexico in international treaties (Millennium Development Goals and Climate Change) and water governance; this one is considered for a proposal about what water sector needs to focus on in the future, searching poverty alleviation, efficient water use, and resolution of water conflicts.

Water conservation and its efficient use in agricultural production are a challenge that has to be addressed by the Mexican government. In this chapter we present our research results on two aspects of this problem related to water availability and water pricing. For our study we use a general equilibrium model applied to Mexico focused on agricultural and food production. Two policy options are evaluated based on the Mexican state’s ownership and distribution of water resources: the reduction of water for irrigation and the increase of water prices paid for this use. Our results show that the water pricing option is superior because the negative effect of this option on crop production and food security is lower than reducing the water supply for irrigated agriculture. This conclusion is reinforced by the possibility that the reduction in water for irrigation may come from climate change and not from policy changes, i.e., pricing water for irrigation might promote a more efficient use of the same by farmers.

A proper treatment of wastewater is important to avoid the consequences of releasing untreated wastewater into water bodies and soils, which causes harmful effects on human health and on the environment and also leads to negative social and economic consequences. Due to this, regeneration and reuse activities are of paramount importance. Many countries practice the regeneration and reuse with successful results. In developing countries because of technological and economical deficiencies, the use of strong and efficient systems of lesser cost and sophistication is required. The current situation in Mexico is described by mentioning the need of a model to make these activities as sustainable as possible and to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The need to reinforce the reuse of regenerated water regarding direct or indirect potable reuse is discussed. A model of recycled water management to assure a continuous water supply is proposed from the technical, health, economical, legal, and environmental perspective to preserve quality and increase stock in the region.

Efficient use of water in Mexico is determined by a tariff structure, which is defined according to the type of user and a categorized classification of water availability zones which arises from the scarcity principle, assuming that the water policy for an efficient water use in Mexico follows the economic principle of supply and demand. In this chapter an analysis of changes in water demand for the industrial sector is performed by hydrological regions in relation to variations in tariff structure. Analyzed data take into account a 14-year period where irregular changes can be seen both in tariff and in demand for water in hydrological regions. According to the result of the price elasticity of demand, there is no direct relationship between an increase in tariff and water demand. This implies that, if there is an efficient water use policy, at least with analyzed data, both the pricing by availability zones and the tariff structure by type of user do not behave as an adequate economic instrument, given that there is a significant variation between applying an increase to the water tariff and the expected response of its demand.

Mexico reached the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in terms of access to water and sanitation infrastructure, but the quality of service provision is still unsatisfactory. In face of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose reach is much wider and ambitious, the country faces a huge financial and technical challenge. Besides facing growing problems due to the scarcity and bad quality of water sources, the gap between demand and supply also widens because of rapid and messy urban growth in metropolitan areas, a lack of investment in infrastructure rehabilitation and extension, and limited capacities for managing and operating the water and sanitation systems. The sector’s infrastructure development has relied on a centralized financial system where federal subsidies have been allocated according to operating rules, designed to induce water utilities’ performance improvement, but in the end, without any linkage to improvement commitments or ex post performance assessment. From a general analysis, it appears that institutional dysfunctions and instability have impeded the sustainable operation of these services, despite the financial and technical efforts deployed; in a way, the continuous and discretional allocations of subsidies seem to reinforce negative loops of service deterioration, users’ unwillingness to pay or collaborate, political interference, and external “rescue” of failing systems. In the present context of financial scarcity, climate variability, impacts of global commercial trends on local resources, and social inequality, Mexico could finally be forced to undertake a profound institutional reform to give water services the stability, professionalism, resilience, and creditworthiness they need, to attract alternative financial resources and ensure a more sustainable operation. Such a reform faces huge cultural and legal obstacles, but the stakes leave no space for inaction.

An analysis on the reform of the Federal Law of Rights that establishes four availability zones in Mexico for water use, catchment, or exploitation and its role in the tariff policy as an economic instrument for water resource management is presented. Before the reform, until 2013, Mexico was classified in nine availability zones, where Zone 1 presented lesser availability levels of water and hence a higher tariff or price and vice versa in Zone 9, besides the fact that zone classification complies with a municipal geographic division criteria with no distinction between hydrological basins and aquifers. As of 2014, Mexico is classified in four availability zones, but current rates or prices respond to a relative availability criterion for hydrological basins and to an availability index for aquifers, even if located in the same territory, which promotes heterogeneity of rates for the collection of fees. It has been considered that although the new classification of availability zones will yield a higher fee revenue, that does not necessarily mean that water management, in terms of efficiency and sustainability, is the most appropriate, since the new classification of zones may force users to migrate to areas where fees are lower and generate pressure on the water resource.

Since 1992, Mexico has been formally implementing several principles of the policy approach now known as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with the passing of the National Water Law. Several years before, innovations in water management were already being made. More decisively, the institutional arrangement and the 2004 amendment to the Law were reorganized by promoting the creation of executive basin organizations with the confrontation of different views. In spite of the importance of those changes, there are still serious problems surrounding water and there is no simple way to reorganize the role of the federal government as the leading entity in water management. What do we need? Some parties insist on an increased decentralization and involvement of various levels of government; social organizations contemplate a joint management and even delegating functions. On the other hand, a different sector of officers and researchers are aware of the lack of a real water authority capable of motivating and penalizing, as well as encouraging basin management based on a new territorial water management. This shows that the IWRM program is still in an institutional transition regarding its application, since there is no sufficient results so far which justify the institutional roles proposed for its operation. This chapter presents a reflection on what has occurred regarding integrated water resources management, and on whether those basin organizations have responded in a proper way to tasks they were entrusted with, as well as on which are the most convenient institutional roles required in Mexico to be successful in water resources management.

Environmental services from the perspective of the State have as a public policy objective the conservation of natural environments as well as the coverage of plants that provide environmental services to society, while, from the owners’ point of view, decisions on the use of forests, whether through forest extraction activities or the change of land use for agricultural or urban activities, depend on the opportunity costs, the conditions of production, and access to economic resources. This chapter conceptualizes the understanding of environmental services from the economic point of view. The contrast and the workings of the payments for ecosystem services and the community forest management are analyzed; whereas in the last section, it examines the current design of ecological flows to appreciate the environmental services provided by rivers and wetlands. This is exemplified in a case study (Capulalpam de Mendez, Oaxaca). From this perspective, this chapter analyzes the current institutional framework that regulates environmental services such as the recognition of the ecological flow and the payment system for environmental services, emphasizing the contrast with the management of forest resources by forest owners and managers.

This chapter draws on the need to rethink regulation with respect to what the current National Waters Law defines as “gestión del agua.” The concept “gestión” can be translated as “management,” but, as it will be explained in this chapter, in existing Mexican law, it has yet other meanings that need to be acknowledged. Clarifying this definition might foster better regulation of different instruments that might improve water public policy. Many of these instruments are currently scarcely and dispersedly regulated in the law. The consequence is a lack of implementation of many of them, e.g., ecosystem services or environmental flow. Analysis departs from main categories of instruments given by the Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA) mainly political, financial (fiscal), and economic instruments. Yet, it focuses on how some of these instruments are recognized in the National Waters Law (LAN). Proposals of legal reform of each one of these categories are taken into consideration to improve regulation of the current legislation, which could be useful for a possible enactment of the General Water Law, currently in discussion at the Mexican Congress. It is because one of the fundamental matters of analysis is the significance of the term “gestión del agua” that it will recurrently, as an exception, be referred in Spanish.

The number of Indian communities in Mexico is imprecise, but the importance of the way they manage water as a common pool resource is critical to understand in many other rural sites, where water is also a common resource under a regulatory framework of legal pluralism. The Mexican government has slightly recognized the sociocultural diversity only after the Zapatista uprising in the mid-1990s, but there are no references regarding cultural and organizational specificity of water management in Indian villages nor in federal law or even in national planning, although these community forms are heavily involved in numerous conflicts over water. Many mestizo communities are also organized around water as a common good and the perception of having local water rights, when in fact the federal government is in charge of managing water rights. The intense process of redistribution of water in basins and aquifers under stress or by the river basin closure is leading to additional pressure on water in the Indian territories.

Facing the paradox of the borders of Mexico with Guatemala and Belize, through which most of Mexico and Guatemala water resources flow, versus the lack of studies about it, how do we articulate local and international dimensions into the political water analysis in the boundary regions that Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico share? This chapter intends to provide some areas of thought regarding this question. Starting from the description of transboundary dimension of water in the studied region, this work proposes a new concept of “hydropolitics” as multiple to analyze diverse international and local dynamics regarding water in this region of multiple borders.

Water has been a central issue on the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States since the border between both countries was established. Despite the conflicting character of their relationships, the countries have reached agreements to secure access to this natural resource in their shared watersheds. We can see very established and institutional capabilities face the critical issues and achieve solutions through negotiations, primarily on surface water, while an equivalent agreement has not occurred on groundwater. But it is likely that the bargaining capacity of Mexico be affected if Mexican water authorities fail in efficient water management, in the context of shared river basins with the United States. At the same time, that effectiveness to solving conflicts between competing users for the same resource fails also.

In this chapter we will review the importance of water resources, the development of the Mexican public policy (within the framework of water management), the risk to which availability is subject (in the face of climate change scenarios), and how, in front of a differentiated approach by basins and ecosystems, can be a model, from actions of adaptation and conservation of the functionality of the basins, for the reduction of water vulnerability and a crosscutting element of public policies in Mexico, which allows to adapt to climate change and meet the international commitments that Mexico has signed.

The Global Water Partnership has defined Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as “a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment.” To achieve the goals of IWRM, a number of tools must be used, among which science and technology play a crucial role, particularly in river basins where water conflicts are commonplace. Most often, conflict arises between upstream and downstream water users due to the resource scarcity. This has been the case of two of the most strategically important river basins in Mexico: the Lerma-Chapala basin and the Río Bravo/Río Grande basins. In the first of these cases, simulation and optimization models were used to build consensus between water users and to define a set of rules for the integrated operation on the system, according to water availability. In the second case, a number of innovations were introduced to accommodate the volume of water allocated to the USA in the water availability study, the development of a novel approach for monthly water budgets, and a statistical approach that explicitly recognizes trends, cyclical behavior, and randomness in the natural flow regime. These innovations have been adopted by water users in the Rio Bravo basin and have been used to define water policy in the region.