Laura Carlsen interviews Pedro Moctezuma the co- founder of “Water for All”, a grass roots organization that defends access to water and quality of water in the country, about the regions acute water war in and how this mismanagement affected millions of people in Mexico.
The Mexfiles has never expected to turn a profit, but personal funds only go so far. Miscellaneous expenses (telephone, internet connection, subscriptions, spyware, hardware repair, etc.) run about 600 pesos (35 US$) a month, and donations are gratefully accepted. Please note that your donations are in Mexican Pesos (18 pesos to the US Dollar as of February 2019). A 25 US$ donation is 450 pesos.
The background of Mexican anti-clericalism and the "atheist" general who led the Catholic counter-revolution of the 1920s 128 pp., Editorial Mazatlán, 2012.
An oral history of the World War II experiences of Gilberto Bosques (1894 – 1997), Mexico 's Consul General in Marseilles, France, who saved tens of thousands from the Nazis. 36 pp. Editorial Mazatlán, 2007 $35 MXP (click the image)
The Mex Files 
It’s all well and good to say that everyone deserves clean, affordable tap water. But the rub is this: how to actually provide it? Running a municipal water system requires real money. I can’t speak to the rest of Mexico, but in CDMX the municipal water system is incredibly poorly managed. There seems to be no incentive to conserve, and as such there’s a tremendous amount of waste.
A good start would be to create a tiered tariff system whereby a base level of water would be provided very economically, but not for free. Higher levels of usage, particularly for businesses, would be charged at much higher rates. And bills should be vigorously collected so that people value the water they use.
Or the city could implement a system such as they use in Bogotá, where richer neighborhoods pay more for water than poorer neighborhoods. While that would be illegal in the USA, it might work in Mexico and would go some way toward both providing resources for the management of the water system while ensuring the poor adequate access to water.
After that, reduction of leaks, installation of water-efficient toilets and showers would be the next step. After that, the city should work on rainwater catchment systems. CDMX receives an enormous amount of rainfall, and it appears that almost all of it is simply pumped into the sea. This needs to change.
Were all these changes made, CDMX would have plenty of water. It’s misguided politics that are keeping Mexicans from the kind of water availability we enjoy in the USA.
Saludos,
Kim G
Redding, CA
Where the city pumps unsustainably from the ground.
I happen to have my water bill in front of me. We are charged a higher rate for usage over the minimum, same as with electricity.
Excellent. But I know that the water company is famous for tolerating non-payers. That needs to stop if there’s to be a system that works for everyone.