Mexico’s City water supply mega-project and the surrounding area: between scarcity and social conflict

Abstract

One of the main renewable natural resources necessary for life and for the development of multiple economic activities is undoubtedly water. For decades, Mexico City and its metropolitan area have been facing serious problems of supply and distribution of drinking water, which endanger their long-term urban sustainability, due to the high population concentration and the economic dynamics developed in its territory; this has implied the development and financing of several mega-projects, among which the Cutzamala system stands out, which despite its high cost, has not been able to satisfy the growing demand of the population living in the Valley of Mexico.

The growing scarcity of drinking water has generated tensions and social conflicts among the settlers of the municipalities that make up the ZMCM, as well as the peasant communities that live along the Cutzamala system of dams and that, in spite of their protest against the hydraulic plundering they have been subjected to for decades, the plundering continues. Faced with this problem, several national and foreign companies have made various proposals for viable solutions in order to sell their image as socially responsible companies.