s off the southwestern end of Cayo Centro on
Banco Chinchorro In pre-conquest Mesoamerica, water was a deified resource that united indigenous communities. Water was thought to have been a gift from the gods and was thus held to a high degree of respect and protection. The indigenous people performed spectacular feats of engineering, creating complex water cultivation systems that both provided water to their large populations and sustainably preserved natural resources. The Spanish approach to water stood in stark contrast to indigenous valuation of water and commitment of environmental protection. Primary sources reveal the Spaniards’ initial awe of the ingenuity and complexity of indigenous water systems, especially the construction of Tenochtitlan (now known as Mexico City), the capital city-state of the Mexica empire that was built in the center of an enormous lake. Preventing periodic and destructive flooding in Mexico City during the colonial era nearly forced the move of the capital to the mainland of the interior lake system. Instead, the Spanish crown invested millions pesos and mobilized tens of thousands of indigenous men in compulsory labor to build a tunnel and then an open cut trench to drain waters out of the Basin of Mexico. The Spanish facilitated a series of practices, which would eventually lead to ecological destruction, including constructing dams, burning woodlands, and diverting water from lakes and canals. The Mexican revolution of the 1910s brought sweeping changes, specifically in the area of land and social rights. In particular, the Mexican constitution, passed in 1917, instituted major land reforms, including the right to communal lands, known as the
ejido system. This system specifically allowed for indigenous communities to legally own traditionally communal lands to live on and work. These land rights also included the ownership of any water resources within the territory. Moreover, the responsibility of water supply and sanitation was specifically designated to the federal government, a duty that was maintained for many decades post-revolution. In the second half of the 20th century, the Mexican water supply and sanitation sector has undergone several changes of organization to improve its performance.
1948–1983: Centralization , one of the Revillagigedo Islands.Bárcena has existed only since 1952. Since 1948, during the presidency of
Miguel Alemán (1946-1952), responsibility for Mexican urban water supply systems was vested in the Ministry of Water Resources (
Secretaría de Recursos Hídricos – SRH) under the federal government. For almost 30 years, the whole urban water organization was planned and carried out by the General Water and Sanitation Committee within the SRH. At the local level, federal Water Boards facilitated some local participation but actually also depended on the SRH. In 1971, during the presidency of
Luis Echeverría (1970–1976), a new committee for water supply and sanitation systems was introduced by SRH facing a high increase in urban population which exceeded the centralized system's capacity to provide services. Despite the creation of more specialized organizations at the national level, the federal government finally had no choice but to decentralize the services to the states and municipalities. The belief that water provision should be a gift from the federal government may be rooted in the policies of that centralization period. In 1982, the Mexican economy collapsed, precipitated by the drop in oil prices, and federal government spending was severely restricted.
1983–1989: Decentralization President
Miguel de la Madrid (1982–1988), took office during the aftermath of the crash of the Mexican economy. During his administration, municipalities were entrusted with providing water supply and sanitation services within the framework of a general decentralization process. At the same time, state governments were made responsible for technical and financial assistance. They were also authorized to decide about the municipalities' capacity for providing the services. Most municipalities neither received the necessary financial resources nor the technical assistance to fulfill their new responsibilities. That is why in 1988 only 10 of 31 Mexican states had devolved responsibility to the municipalities and where they did, service quality and efficiency usually deteriorated.
1989–1990s: Creation of CONAGUA and further decentralization , the Chuveje
Waterfall President
Carlos Salinas, elected in 1988, began a significant sector reform, creating the National Water Commission or
Comisión Nacional del Agua (CONAGUA) in 1989, which today remains a key player in Mexican water supply and sanitation (see below). At the beginning, it was given the task of defining federal policies to strengthen service providers through technical assistance and financial resources. CONAGUA, among other suggestions soon recommended to strengthen the decentralization process, improve the transparency of tariffs and introduce tariff autonomy, based on real costs for the service provision and free of political influence. Consequently, many water laws were introduced or amended, partly following CONAGUA's guidelines. In 1996, 21 states had transferred service provision to municipal service providers.
The 2000s: Proposals for new water laws A 2003 modification of the National Water Law envisaged the transfer of certain functions from both the federal and state levels to newly created institutions at the level of river basins, including financial decisions through the creation of a National Water Financial System. The provisions of the new law remain to be implemented. == Water laws and regulation ==