Water Scarcity, Flooding, and Public Infrastructure in Mexico City

Resource System
Watershed and Built Infrastructure.
Resource Units
water flow management
Location
Mexico City

Mexico City, a megalopolis of 22 million, is located at the center of the Basin of Mexico. For over 600 years, catastrophic flooding and access to potable water have challenged the city’s residents, motivating extensive investments in hard infrastructure to supply the city with fresh water, or to protect the city from periodic flooding. The case study catalogues an action situation involving residents and their local, city, state, and federal governments that formally and informally govern land, water, and the built infrastructure that regulates water supply and flood risk.

The key resources (natural infrastructure) in the system are the hydrology, topography, aquifer (shared), and land (private) that make up the Basin of Mexico watershed. The key resource relevant to the commons dilemma faced by the city is water, regulated by built infrastructure (common-pool) that extracts, exports, dams, and moves water into and out of the city.

Water and Public Infrastructure, Basin of Mexico
Resource System

The key resources (natural infrastructure) in the system are the hydrology, topography, aquifer (shared), and land (private) that make up the Basin of Mexico watershed

Resource Users

residents, businesses, and farmers

Public Infrastructure Providers

The Federal government (CONAGUA, Consejo Nacional de Agua).
The “Operating Organisms” (SACMEX in Mexico City, and CAEM elsewhere in the State) 
Delegations (only in Mexico City) are local elected governments in Mexico City 
Metropolitan Comission of Drainage and Water (CADAM) 
Comsiones de Cuenca (regulate subwatersheds)
Comites Tecnico de Agua Subterranea (COTAS) monitor local aquifers.

Public Infrastructure

Hard Human Made- pipes and wells that extracts, exports, dams, and moves water into and out of the city.

Soft Infrastructure includes The National Water Law, the Fideicomiso 1928, a financing mechanism meant to span 3 government scales to fund major water projects in the Basin of Mexico, and the Consejo de Cuenca, an association which organizes decision making across all government scales. This includes actors from the States of Mexico, Tlaxcala, and recently, Hidalgo.

Relationship 1

Most resource users have taps in their homes to access water. Some users employ private infrastructure such as cisterns to store water due to uncertain supply, or pumps to remove floodwater from their communities. An increasing number of water users as the cities grows continues to tax the resource.

Relationship 2

Residents indirectly select public infrastructure providers by voting for governments that appoint or hire people to federal, state, and local government water management roles. They also may protest to influence investments in public infrastructure to address their flood risk or water scarcity

Relationship 3

CONAGUA administers water from the aquifer and surface water from other basins, operate major dam, large drainage pipes, and well permits.
SACMEX is responsible for local water distribution, mainatence of pipes, payments for services, operation of wells, and supply of local rainwater and treated grey water.
Delegations support SACMEX by distributing water to local communities.
CADAM) oversees storage and filtration of rain water, and treatment of wastewater.
Comsiones de Cuenca regulate subwatersheds, can check well permits and monitoring illegal drilling, maintaining forested slopes, reduce contamination.

Relationship 4

Wells extract water from the aquifer, and deliver it to users through pipes. Flooding is carried away via drains. Wells can increase subsidence, which decreases the performance of water supply pipes and flood drains.

Relationship 5

users can use as much water as come from their tap- but the more they use the higher the price.

Relationship 6

some users free ride off public infrastructure by connecting their houses to flood drains or taking clandestine amounts of water for their farms.

Exogenous Drivers 7 (Resource System)

increasing urbanization converts forest land to urban uses, reducing both water supply and flood mitigation

Exogenous Drivers 7 (Public Infrastructure)

increasing flood from climate change can overwhelm local drainage systems

Exogenous Drivers 8 (Resource Users)

increasing population increases water demand

Exogenous Drivers 8 (Public Infrastructure Providers)

An strong electoral shift can change public infrastructure providers. A sudden disaster event can cause a shift in governance preferences. Some providers may be corrupt and give false permits for urbanization or well drilling to make money, or regularize an irregular settlement and provide them water access in exchange for votes (clientelism)

Human Infrastructure, Private and Human-Made (Resource Users)
(none specified)
Human Infrastructure, Private and Human-Made (Public Infrastructure Providers)
(none specified)

Tellman E,  Arizona State University. 

Tellman E.  2015.  The expanding commons dilemma for water in the Basin of Mexico. SOS 598: Applied Robustness Analysis in Social-Ecological Systems..

Tortajada C, Castelan E.  2003.  Water Management for a Megacity: Mexico City Metropolitan Area. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment. 32(2):124–129.