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