Mexico : Water Public Expenditure Review
Mexico has critical and urgent water related problems including the overexploitation and contamination of surface water and groundwater resources in the regions where most of the people reside and where the great majority of the Gross Domestic Prod...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/09/17234229/mexico-water-public-expenditure-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13208 |
| Summary: | Mexico has critical and urgent water
related problems including the overexploitation and
contamination of surface water and groundwater resources in
the regions where most of the people reside and where the
great majority of the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP is
generated. Groundwater overexploitation is perhaps the most
serious water resources management issue. About 100 aquifers
in the central and northern part of the country are being
overexploited, with water tables dropping 1 to 4 meters per
year. In some areas, essentially all sectors depend on
groundwater, and the unsustainable water use regimen will
constrain economic development and have serious social
impacts. The poor often suffer the most, because they are
less able to deal with the added costs associated with
falling water tables and water pollution. Water issues are
both very complex and very important in Mexico, because they
sit at the conjunction of economic development, public
finance, infrastructure investment, environmental
sustainability, and social justice. They are linked to
public finance in three ways, raising resources, providing
resources for investment and operations, and setting fees
that affect the incentives for using water. The decisions
about water investment have a lasting physical impact on
what happens with water, as well as major social impacts.
The scarcity of water in many parts of the country means
that sometimes more water for one sector results in less
water (and a different development path) in another sector
and for the environment. The national patrimony relating to
the ecosystem and groundwater often ends up last in line, as
everyone generally agrees on their importance but objects to
having his allocation of water or fiscal subsidy be reduced
or to paying for wastewater treatment. Finally, making water
and water services available equitably to households is a
key element in the social justice to which Mexicans aspire.
The report aims to integrate the views of the water sector
through these different lenses, and to suggest how to
improve the management of the sector and thus to make
decisions more coherent. |
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