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(Last updated: 7 Jun 2011)
Trends and opportunities
The market
In Mexico, as in many parts of the world, there is a growing concern for water. The natural per capita availability of water has reduced drastically in recent years, going from 18,000 cubic meters per inhabitant per year in 1950 to only 4,442 cubic meters per inhabitant per year in 2010, due to the population growth. The normal precipitation per year in Mexico is 760mm; however this national value hides a great regional variation, since states such as Baja California receive precipitation of just 176mm per year, whereas Tabasco receives more than 210mm, which generates problems related to the lack of water in some regions and excess and floods in others.
The majority of the rainfall occurs between the months of June and September, very often torrentially, with large volumes in very short periods, making it difficult to make use of.
Mexico presents an imbalance between the supply and demand for water. Currently, 78.4 billion cubic meters are required every year, and to supply this quantity, 11.5 billion cubic meters are taken from non-sustainable sources; with business as usual, the current gap will be doubled within a period of 20 years.
The main challenges are faced in the Lerma and Grande river basins, where there are cells (a cell is defined as the territory of a catchments or hydrological region that corresponds to a state. Defined this way, there are 168 cells in Mexico), in which the gap foreseen will not be bridged without recurring to inter-basin transfers or by reducing the withdrawal of water for irrigation.
Ensuring the demand is sustainability met will require investments at around US$25.44 billion up to 2030, which should be paid by different stakeholders involved in water management.
Wastewater and sanitation services
The main problem related with water quality in Mexico is the lack of infrastructure for wastewater treatment. The catchments facing the greatest challenge in this respect are Lerma, Valley of Mexico and Balsas.
Around 6.7 billion cubic meters of wastewater are currently generated every year, and it is expected that this volume will reach 9.2 billion cubic meters by 2030, when only 38 per cent of this volume would be treated to the level required by the law. Redressing this situation require investments of US$9.8 billion by 2030, as well as the implementation of several initiatives at federal level.
According to the XIII National Census of Population and Housing 91.3 per cent of the population has access to drinking water services and 89.9 per cent has sanitation coverage.
Considering the current coverage and the population growth, the challenge will be to extend access to drinking water services to a further 36.8 million inhabitants and sanitation coverage to a further 40.5 million.
The states facing the greatest challenges with regards to access to drinking water and sanitation services are Baja California, Chiapas, State of Mexico, Jalisco, Puebla and Veracruz.
Reaching universal access to water services by 2030 will require investments of US$17.87 billion and several federal initiatives.
Irrigation
In terms of irrigation districts and units, these play a fundamental role in the nation and in regional economies; they produce a substantial part of the food and raw materials required for internal and external markets; they contribute to the trade balance and significantly occupy manual labour, among other contributions.
As a result of the characteristics of agricultural processes, the original conception of the country’s irrigation infrastructure design and some agricultural practices, this group of users have the greatest concession and make the greatest use of the majority of the available surface and groundwater, which means that they have enormous water-saving potential. This is essential both to favour the balance in aquifers and watersheds, and to satisfy new demands in the primary sector and in other sectors that use water, seeking as much as possible to increase productivity through practices such as the modernisation of infrastructure and the technification of irrigation at the plot level.
Historically floods have mainly affected the hydrological administrative regions Valley of Mexico and Southern Border, which explains why the investments have been concentrated in those regions. However, there are other regions in which it is necessary to increase the investment under this heading, as in the case for Central Gulf and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Different types of investments are considered in Mexico, which basically fall under two headings: construction of storm drains (47 per cent) and flood control (45 per cent). Insufficient information is available to estimate the amount of investments that would be necessary by 2030, as it depends to a large degree on the nation’s performance with regards to land use planning and the evolution of the phenomenon of global climate change; however the investment already considered might be around US$8.89 billion.
Opportunities
At present, part of the duties for the use of water that are collected are destined to provide incentives for investment in drinking water supply and sanitation systems through schemes which return duties and to promote the concept with the treasury authorities that ‘what comes from water, goes back to water’ and is invested particularly in reinforcing water governance systems.
This proposal means that the new systems of financing that are designed should take into account that is not sufficient to finance infrastructure; if appropriate investments are not also made in the measurement of surface and groundwater quantity and quality, in their management, in the associated technical services; in the elaboration of plans and programs.
When attempting to make the value of water more transparent, it is necessary to distinguish between the value of use and the intrinsic value. Additionally, in the determination of the tariffs for water services, it is relevant to refer to the total cost involved in water supply – be it in bulk or supplied to the point of use, in both cases the economic cost and environmental externalities associated with public health and ecosystem maintenance should be considered.
Wastewater
Another one of the serious problems that Mexico City’s water system has to face is the lack of wastewater treatment and treatment capacity. Currently, there are 25 wastewater treatment plants in Mexico City with an installed capacity of 6,640 litres per second (lps). However, the capacity of these plants, 2,500lps, represents only 38 per cent of the capacity that would be needed to treat total DF wastewater volumes. With this limited capacity and with the vision of treating DF wastewater in Atotonilco, outside of the Valley of Mexico, it is not all that surprising that only seven per cent of DF wastewaters are currently treated.
There are six wastewater treatment plants in northern Mexico City with a combined installed capacity of 700lps. In the central area, there are five plants whose combined installed capacity is nearly 5,000lps, with the ‘Cerro de la Estrella’ plant being the largest of these plants with 80 per cent of the total capacity in the central area. Finally, in the southern area, there are five plants with a combined installed capacity of 800lps. It is important to mention that US$416.6 million is currently programmed for the installation of new technology and to increase the production of treated wastewater from 2.5m3/s to 7.2 m3/s by 2012. In the future, Mexico City hopes that this water treatment will result in important, additional water reuses, which will alleviate some Mexico City’s aquifer concerns and eventually recharge aquifers.
Another challenge has to do with the storage of wastewater prior to its treatment or delivery outside of the Valley of Mexico. Most wastewater storage areas are located in the northern part of the city where all Mexico City wastewater is directed on their way out of the Valley of Mexico. However, this leads to an uneven, less than ideal distribution of wastewater storage. To address this Mexico City has launched projects to add other reserve basins especially in the Iztapalapa area in the southern part of the city.
With recent flooding problems, the DF budget priority has been towards the rehabilitation of deep drainage system tunnels. However, Mexico City has made the rehabilitation of its existing wastewater treatment plants, such as the ‘Milpa Alta’ in southern part of the city, a priority as well. Another important project is the construction of a potable water treatment plant in ‘Cerro de la Estrella’, in the south area of the city, which seeks to build an infiltration pond and to return this treated water to the aquifer – the first effort of its kind in Mexico. In addition, Mexico City has sought to invest in wetlands construction and similar ‘swamps’ for wastewater maintenance, especially in the water abundant areas of Xochimilco and Tlahuac in the southern part of the city, which they hope will also help in with water level issues in these wetland areas.
Mexico City and Conagua have increased their budgets for water projects during the last few years with Conagua funding of DF water projects as its top priority. This increase made the Mexico City’s Conagua budget three times that of the State of Mexico and larger than the budgeted funds for the next give most important Mexican states.
In response to these realities, there have been some initial proposals to increase private sector participation in new infrastructure projects and rehabilitation and maintenance programs. Although these measures are still in planning stages, many water officials believe that this is the only way to address the problems of water sector in Mexico City. These types of programs will create more business opportunities for domestic companies and for foreign companies to provide products and technologies for better funded and therefore more generally stable integrated projects and solutions.
Some other infrastructure projects include the Atotonilco wastewater treatment plant, preservation work for the México valley, the Querétaro II potable water pipeline, the El Realito dam, suburban sanitation work in Guadalajara and Jalisco's El Zapotillo dam, among others.
Sources:
- Agenda 2030 CONAGUA, April 2011
- Recursos Hidricos Mexico 2010, Centro del Agua para America Latina y el Caribe
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