Professor Addresses Mexico Water Crisis
10/09/2005
David Gaddis Smith, Staff Writer,
San Diego Union-Tribune
The city of Saltillo loses 67 percent of its water through leaks, theft and bad management, a researcher said in San Diego last week.
Nicolás Pineda told the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego that northern Mexico's cities are facing a water crisis.
A professor of public policy at El Colegio de Sonora in Hermosillo, Pineda said the two main solutions to the crisis are to conserve more water and to transfer water from agricultural to urban use.
He said a major problem is money. "One-third of the water is not paid for by consumers," he said. He said Mexico's health laws do not allow water service to be cut off, meaning there are a lot of "free riders and consumers who do not pay their bills."
This prevents water systems from investing in new pipes and more efficient equipment.
He said Mexico's system of municipal governance is also part of the problem. In almost all cities, mayors and council members serve three-year terms and cannot be re-elected. With each new administration, there normally is a new director for water systems, he said, with each new director facing a big learning curve.
Pineda said that in Sonora, directors last an average of 1.8 years and "tend to be cronies." He said teachers often wind up in top water posts "because they help the politician win the election."
He said privatization, in the few places where it has been tried, has improved water systems' bottom line but "has not improved service."
Pineda, who has a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, said National Water Commission statistics showed Saltillo losing 67 percent of its water. Another major offender, Torreon, also in Coahuila state, recorded water losses of 54 percent.
"Monterrey and Nogales are very efficient: They only lost one-quarter of their water," Pineda said.
Water expert Vivienne Bennett of Cal State San Marcos said Monterrey "is the only city in Mexico where you can go and drink potable water anywhere" and should be looked at as a model for Pineda's research.
