Water Distribution in Mexico City: the De-Privatization of the Water Industry and it’s Effects

Water Distribution in Mexico City:the De-Privatization of the Water Industry and it’s Effects Lauren Heyn, Tad VandenBrink, Meagan Chuey

Introduction • Mexico City: struggling to provide all of it’s citizens with sanitary water • Lack of water due to many things: - unpredictable transportation of water - deficiency of waste water treatment plants - fraction of the water industry into the federal, state, and private water distribution sectors

Main Issue: The source of all problems is in the fractioning of the water industry. Therefore we propose that the water distribution in Mexico would be easiest solved by a full takeover by the federal government - large short-run cost, even larger long-term benefit

Problems with Water Distribution Water problem has three dimension: a) treatment of water b) drainage of water c) transportation of water

Treatment of Water • Leads to diseases, particularly for small children and the elderly • 12 million die each year due to diseases caused by unsanitary water - results on a dependence on the bottled-water industry - decrease in tourism and businesses willing to locate here - Many people do not have access to sewers • Waste is released directly into ground, contaminating the ground water

Drainage of Water • Only two canals that currently drain the city - should either of these fail, would lead to a great amount of flooding - Mexico City is surrounded by mountains and is slowly sinking, creating a kind of ‘hole’ that would be difficult to drain should extensive occur

Transportation of Water - Rainfall not distributed evenly throughout country, so there is a great need for the transportation of water

Transportation of Water (cont.) • Currently being transported through old, leaky pipes - water lost would provide for 4 million people • Misappropriation of water • an excess amount of water is being used unwisely for irrigation – this takes away from water being able to be used in city

Focus on Irrigation • 76% of water is used for irrigation - this water does not need to be treated as heavily, makes water more accessible and cheaper - stronger focus on drainage and storage of this water

Water Industry • Split between federal, state, and private water distributors • We recommend the federal government taking full control and responsibility of the water industry

Brief History of Water Industry • Responsibility of the water industry in Mexico City has flipped between the federal and state governments to private corporations - in 1980s, programs funded to improve transportation and efficiency, and although successful, funding was cut to go towards other things

Brief History of Water Industry (cont.) -Setting a trend for future governments, Mexico adopted the policy of privatizing the water industry -led to several companies owning different parts of the water industry - This system of negotiating contracts over short and long periods of time between private companies leads to inefficiency

Problems with Privatization • Constant need of a middle man between the private companies and the government leads to inefficiency • Often these wastewater treatment plants will be owned by foreigners and the economic benefits will be reaped by other countries • Employment outsourced • When employment not outsourced, often results in horrible working conditions, overworking, and underpayment

Government Taking Responsibility • Help from the UN in setting up stable infrastructure - Developing a global partnership for development - Combating diseases - Ensuring environmental sustainability

Conclusion • We believe that the government should take total control of the distribution of water and infrastructure of the water industry in Mexico City • Without the funding within the country to support this, help should be requested from the UN

Water Distribution in Mexico City: the De-Privatization of the Water Industry and it’s Effects