An Alternative to the Governance of Water Services in Mexico: The Model of the New Water Culture

Page created by Neil Craig
 
CONTINUE READING
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237       1

An Alternative to the Governance of Water Services in Mexico: The Model of
                          the New Water Culture
                             O. Alberto Pombo and Ricardo V. Santes-Álvarez
                                       El Colegio de la Frontera Norte

                  The conventional image of governance is yielding to novel ways of exercising power.
                  Initially The New Public Management (NPM) was promoted as the best alternative
                  to the conventional model to increase the efficiency in the delivery of services; but
                  the NPM is confronted with the idea that public action should favor the interaction
                  between actors rather than the material aspects of the management. This concept is
                  at the root of governance, which encourages good relations between public, private
                  and social, promising to be the best way to resolve matters in democracies. In water
                  management, several experiments suggest that the use of a "tripartite” model
                  guarantees resource governance by allowing the participation of public, private and
                  social sectors. The model of the New Water Culture (NWC) is an option that departs
                  from the conventional approach (which focuses on the demand side of the problem
                  and promotes solutions through public works) and public-private-partnership (PPP)
                  models (which considers the social sector only as a "client") to create a tripartite
                  model of administration with public-private-social participation. Although Mexico
                  has no experience of the NWC, there is a basis for implementation. In order to
                  implement it in Mexico there is a need to develop new institutional conditions, to
                  create innovative figures such as neighborhood committees for water management to
                  oversee the quality of services and define together with the administrative authority
                  the way the private sector associates with the public operator in order to improve the
                  quality of the service.

                  Keywords : new water culture, water management

1
    The traditional system of governance that                  goal of providing an efficient service
demands the State to provide individual                        delivery. But the NPM was soon challenged
attention and solution of public affairs has                   with the argument that public work should be
generally resulted in unsatisfactory results.                  governed primarily by the quality of the
The search for alternative modes of                            relationship between actors rather than
governance was the subject of discussion                       material goals. This contrasting approach is
since late last century, resulting in the New                  the source of governance, a superior proposal
Public Management (NPM) with the essential                     of governance that seeks the good
    1
        O. Alberto POMBO, Professor-researcher at the              Ricardo V. SANTES-ÁLVAREZ, Professor-
        Department of Urban and Environmental Studies at           researcher at the Department of Urban and
        El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico           Environmental Studies at El Colegio de la Frontera
        e-mail:oapombo@gmail.com                                   Norte, Tijuana, Mexico e-mail: rsantes@colef.mx
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   2

relationship between public, private and civil            country, however, there is still lagging behind
society.                                                  in the implementation of the NWC design.
    Since the late nineteenth century water
resources have been a concern in many                     Conventional and Alternative Practices in
regions of the world as it approaches levels of           Public Affairs
scarcity. It was argued the alleged inability of          From Centralized Management to the
the state for providing efficient service, so the         Public-Private Model
recurrent suggestion was that the
conventional model of management where                         The changes in governance that have
the state is a major player gives way to a                occurred since the last decades of last century
design in which the participation of private              have marked a turning point between a
enterprise is favored. The suggestion of this             traditional system and other modes of
model "bipartisan" is part of the idea of the             exercise of power. As noted by Kjær (2004:
NPM; arrangements between government                      19-21), the traditional or Weber model, based
and private sector to provide infrastructure              on principles of hierarchy (political authority
and public services complementing strength                is based on a sovereign populace with a
and unique individual characteristics of each             power that is exercised indirectly through
other.                                                    plural representation), neutrality (resource
    Practices of public-private management                management, economic and public affairs
of water in the world have allowed us to                  have nothing to do with private interests) and
recognize successes but also failures. Most               public service career (officers are career
experiences in developing countries resulted              bureaucrats chosen for their skills), faced
in a failure of the bipartite model, but of those         challenges that motivated the search for
failures an alternative approach to                       alternative ways of managing public affairs.
management development was born                           A first challenge was an overload of
characterized by the participation of three               responsibilities. If initially the State acted as
sectors: public, private and social. This model           regulator, concerned to preserve the order and
"tripartite" recognized under the name of                 provide basic infrastructure, soon extended
New Water Culture (NWC), was accepted by                  its delivery of services (education, health,
most international funding agencies,                      employment, etc.) leading to increase public
    The experiences show that the                         spending and taxes. And although the new
governance of water demands social                        tasks were considered adequate, the State was
participation,     access     to    information,          criticized for be structured in a "stiff" and
consensus and monitoring of service delivery.             hierarchical (Pierre and Peters 2000: 5), being
The NWC claims the importance of including                unable to respond quickly and efficiently the
the social sector in the decision-making and              demands of "customers" (Kjær 2004: 22).
implementation of infrastructure projects of              This generated a crisis of legitimacy, because
water governance, from the governance point               it was difficult to respect a government that
of view, the interaction of actors allows a               fails in its responsibility to provide welfare; it
successful treatment of problems.                         also revealed a government with an
    Currently, Mexico is making efforts to                inadequate plan, inevitably requiring external
solve the problems of water governance, due               economic support (Donolo 1999: 23-40,
to the growth and creation of new urban                   Pierre and Peters 2000: 9, 61-62; Vallespín
developments in various regions of the                    2000: 123-126). In this regard, the organized
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   3

interests of the private sector were                      combined with a weak public administration.
strengthened to the same extent that the                  Moreover, it is questionable the intent of the
public sector pale. Thus arose the so-called              managing some resources that are considered
crisis of governance in the seventies (Crozier            basic beyond the sphere of the State thus
et al. 1975: 9, 12, Habermas 1999: 21-27,                 allowing the incursion of the private sector;
Pierre and Peters 2000: 51). A second                     mainly in countries where the instrumental
challenge, related with the government                    (legal and organizational) and human (policy)
overload, was the failure of pluralistic                  infrastructure has a centralized bias. The idea
representation, which meant that the vested               of citizen political empowerment, for
interests in policy decisions were those of               example, which assumes that lower-level
powerful organizations, earning them access               public officials who frequently have wide
to the state administration and a presence in             scope to exercise authority should be
various public committees, while the interests            responsible for their performance to their
of the majority were relegated. The weight of             customers and users (the local population )
these organizations led to formal rules that              resulting in an improvement to the quality of
arise in negotiations and consultations,                  services (Kjær 2004: 24-30), is not easily
institutionalizing the links between those                accepted in centralized models of
interests and decision-making structures of               administration.
the state in the so-called corporate
governance (Kjær 2004: 22-23).                            Network Governance: Towards A Plural
    The shortcomings of the bureaucratic                  Model
model detonated the proposed administrative
reform, the New Public Management, or                         The NPM was applied in both developed
NPM, in the eighties and nineties, with                   and developing countries. Paradoxically, says
different nuances that persists until present             Kjær, “those who have launched the most
days, with the purpose of removing obstacles              comprehensive reforms have often been the
to efficient service delivery. Such initiative            countries with the least capacity to perform
proposes: 1) Deliberate change in                         the changes, [but they do it] because they
bureaucracy, 2) Innovation, 3) Improving the              have very little leverage with which to resist
efficiency and effectiveness of services, and             the demands of their donors” (Kjær 2004:
4) Prevent the uncertainty of rapid change in             31). In the Europe of the mid-nineties that
organizations. The path to reform is the                  model of administration was questioned with
transfer of private sector principles to the              arguments like that "the effectiveness and
public, as well as privatization, competition,            legitimacy of public action are based on the
creation of ad hoc agencies, decentralization,            quality of interaction between different levels
and empowerment of citizens.                              of government and between them and
    It can be argued that the success of the              business organizations and civil society
NPM depends on the application of the full                "(Prats 2005: 130). Prats certainly goes
recipe and that such a model contributes to               further by introducing a new qualitative
the bureaucracy to do their job optimally. But            variable, the quality of interaction between
clearly not all the ingredients of public-                the actors, that was not present on the theory
private design have been included in the                  of public administration focused on
attempted reforms in different countries, so              standards, performance measures, results,
the results are mixed; failed experiences are             and money (Kjær 2004: 25; Natera 2005:
maximized when organized interests are                    802). In that sense, reform of structures and
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   4

procedures should follow a rationale of                   confirms the importance of a network policy
contribution to the interaction and the focus             that addresses public issues in different ways
of analysis would have to pass to the                     and contributes to the quality of the
relationship between levels of public                     interaction.
organizations and between them and the                        The change of focus, which moves from
private and civil society, without forgetting             structure-function to the interaction of actors,
the citizen as a reference for public action.             is the source of governance; in fact,
However, it should be asked if the                        governance seeks the contribution to the good
responsibility of policy-making and decision              relationship between public actors, and
making has to reside only in the government               among them and the private and civil society,
and its bureaucracy along with business                   while taking into account two basic aspects:
interests, since the role of other stakeholders           the citizen and the context of the problems
in public affairs is increasingly relevant.               (Santes-Alvarez 2009: 46). Prats (2005: 131)
    The directive to "minimize the State"                 notes that the interaction requires
immersed in the NPM as well as reflection on              "extraordinary dose of strategic vision,
the quality of the relationship between actors            conflict management and consensus
have been grounds for the evolution of the                building" that is, a politically responsible
concepts of networks governance. Constant                 State vision. Meanwhile, in the configuration
reconfiguration of public service has                     of networks there is a vertical dimension with
impacted on the performance of government;                overlapping structures         revealing the
on the one hand, it has weakened the central              ubiquitous hierarchy, which means that the
government's ability to direct society. Saward            networks and hierarchy coexist, and in this
(in Kjær 2004: 32) notes that the center is               configuration the State must have a higher
pierced because the core executive granted                status and take the challenge to carry the
capabilities to the social sector, other state            network on the right path (cf. Kjær 2004: 44;
actors, and supranational entities. But the               Pierre and Peters 2000: 3-4). The system of
alleged weakening of the State is necessary               governance that is generated (network
and the reforms challenge their ability to                governance) needs to solve a key challenge:
reconfigure and be flexible in the face of the            organizing “a deliberative public space based
complexity of the issues concerned, and the               on procedural rules that feed back the
governments must react to the changing                    confidence      in     the      structure    of
political, economic and social scenes. The                interdependence” (Prats 2005: 132). In
alternative seems to be a mix between                     addition, the issue of co-responsibility is yet
centrality and plurality, that is, the                    to be faced. In fact, co-responsibility,
requirement of a strong state must be added a             understood as "the recognition and
policy for relations between interdependent               acceptance of the parties, formal or informal,
actors, or networks (Kickert et al., in Kjær              of the consequences of their actions or
2004: 35), to ensure another view of affairs.             omissions, as well as of the differential
On the other hand, the reforms have impacted              weight with respect to shared goals," is
the governance at the local level, with a                 essential to governance; it is “the fee that
transition which in itself sums up the matter:            should cover those who have voice, vote, and
a movement of local government to                         are made, modified or prevented their
community        governance      involving    a           interests” (Santes-Alvarez 2009: 30, 45).
complexity of private sector and public                   Undoubtedly, shared responsibility (public,
organizations (Rhodes 1996: 658). This                    private and social) that proposes a plural
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   5

model of governance networks will make                    design,      construction,   operation    and
sense if it leads the plurality of interests to           maintenance of public infrastructure and
better governance.                                        services. The argument is that a successful
                                                          partnership would combine the strengths of
Water Governance: Issues And Solutions                    both sectors to establish complementary
Global Issues                                             relationships. The underlying logic is that
                                                          both public and private sectors have unique
    In the decade of the seventies the issues             characteristics     that   provide    specific
of economic growth and the distribution of                advantages for projects or provide services
profits were discussed by the development                 efficiently.
agencies. It was said that to promote growth
and equity, it was necessary to modify                    Table 1
conventional standards, and in poor countries             Water in the International Agenda
to increase productivity and improve access                 Relevant meetings:
to basic public services like water supply and               Mar del Plata Conference (1977)
sanitation (World Bank 1980). Since then,                    Declaration of the International
water resources have become increasingly                        Decade for Water Supply and
important, especially as demand-availability                    Sanitation (1981-1991)
ratio is at levels of scarcity in many regions               Global Consultation on Safe Water
(El Colegio de Mexico 2003) of the world.                       and Sanitation for the Nineties (New
The inclusion of water issues on the                            Delhi 1990)
international agenda is corroborated by the                  Conference         on    Water      and
series of events that have occurred over time                   Environment (Dublin 1992)
(Table 1). In this journey, large sectors of the             Conference on Environment and
society have become aware of the dimension                      Development (Rio 1992): Chapters 18
of water as an essential element for life and                   and 21 of Agenda XXI provide special
development processes, as well as the                           attention to water management
consequences of unsustainable forms of                       United Nations declaration of the
water resources management as in many                           International Decade for Action
urban and tourist projects.                                     'Water for Life' 2005-2015
    Changing patterns of growth and equity                  Influential organizations:
was part of the alleged inability of the state as
                                                             Water, Sanitation and Health
a provider of services resulting in a "crisis" of
                                                                Program, World Health Organization
governance (Crozier et al. 1975). The
                                                                (WHO 1997)
alternative to the conventional centralized
                                                             IMF: International Monetary Fund
model of management was to allow private
sector participation. For water resource                     World Bank: Financial support for
management, the initiative promoted was the                     development
                                                          Source: Authors
“public private partnership (ppp)” or
“bipartite model"; the model dictates                         According to the Canadian Ministry of
arrangements between government and                       Municipal Affairs, the public-private
private     entities    to    provide     public          partnerships although an alternative to
infrastructure and related services. This is a            creating new infrastructure and related
model of joint investments, risks and                     services, they “are not a substitute for a strong
responsibilities in areas such as finance,                and effective governance by the government
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   6

[... which] remains responsible for generating            implementation of mixed public-private
projects and services so as to protect and                model of water in urban areas have been
promote public interests "(CMMA 1999: 5).                 mixed.
As shown in Table 2, the results of the

Table 2
Experiences with the Bipartite Model in the World
                         Place                                         Outcome
  USA: Atlanta, Seattle, Keystone (S. Dakota),
  Veolia y Tampa Bay (Florida); Indianápolis; El SUCCESS.
  Paso; Burlingame (California).
  África: Senegal, Ghana y Lesoto.                   FAILURE. Due to inadequate planning.
                                                     The different schemes negatively impact
                                                     the poorest segments of the population by
                                                     reducing their access to safe drinking water
                                                     due to high tariffs.
  Latin America: Argentina and Bolivia.              FAILURE (nineties). Forced privatization
                                                     of large scale utilities promoted by the
                                                     World Bank
  Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, NO EVALUATION YET (recent
  Perú, Uruguay, Argentina y Bolivia.                experiences). Strengths and weaknesses of
                                                     the model are yet to be evaluated.
Source: Authors. Data from: Finnegan 2002; Barkin 2004; Ogunbiyi 2004: 1; UNESCO 2005; Ouyahia 2006, IDRC,
2007; NCPPP 2007.

    These experiences allows to recognize                 conquerors were amazed when they first saw
mistakes and successes, and propose an                    the hydraulic complex of Tenochtitlan,
alternative approach to management that                   consisting of aqueducts and works for flood
emphasizes three key aspects of water: 1) It is           control, navigation, agriculture and fisheries.
essential for development and social welfare              In colonial times, the viceroyalty constructed
(World Bank 1980), 2) It is necessary to                  monumental works of distribution, storage
analyze both its supply and its treatment as              and drainage that sustained cities as well as
wastewater, because both conditions are                   agricultural emporia, mining and ports.
inseparable (Gunnerson 1991), 3) citizen                  However, the distribution of rain in the
participation is central to local actions; thus           country is uneven: about 56 percent of the
encouraging reform policies prevailing in                 land is arid and semiarid, 37 percent sub
managing the water emerging concepts such                 humid and only 7 percent is wet (Conabio,
as integrated management and collaborative                1998). Arid regions are located in the north
participation (Simon and Laurie 1999; Barkin              and central part, while the wetlands are
2006a; Gilbert 2007).                                     located in the south, mainly in the slope of the
                                                          Gulf of Mexico. In addition, despite the great
The Mexican Situation                                     diversity of ecosystems and physical
                                                          conditions, the national average natural water
   The hydraulic tradition of Mexico goes                 availability per capita is 4.505 m³ / person /
back to pre-Hispanic times,      Hispanic                 year, ranking Mexico as a country with low
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   7

availability of water according to                        to assure legal certainty on land use; and
international indicators (Conagua , 2005).                sustainable and comprehensive water
The uneven distribution and scarcity make up              management. The characteristics and
increasing social problems, economic and                  objectives of the water management model
environmental impact on development of the                are part of the concept of economic
country, which is compounded by the lack of               development and the central idea revolves
efficiency in use by the different productive             around its use for growth. In this context, the
sectors and public policies ineffective.                  rights and obligations of users for the
Together, these factors affect the sustainable            exploitation of national waters are reflected in
use of water.                                             the Public Registry of Water Rights, in two
    In Mexico, regulations and instruments for            official documents: 1) the authorizing title
water management have a history going back                granting of the use of national waters, federal
to the end of the nineteenth century. By 1888,            zones, extraction of materials, construction,
the      General      Law      on      General            operation or use of water infrastructure and 2)
Communications initiated the legislative                  the wastewater discharge permit authorizing
tradition of waters was followed by the                   the discharge into receiving bodies of water
Federal Jurisdiction Water Use Act of 1910,               owned by the Nation, establishing certain
which classified the sources of supply,                   quality conditions of the discharge.
regulated water uses and formalized regime                Furthermore, the Federal Law establishes the
concessions. In 1926, it enacted the Federal              obligation of users to pay a contribution for
Water Irrigation with, which led to the                   the use of national waters based on the
National Irrigation Commission, which                     principle that "those who use more water pay
initiates the construction of monumental                  more and also does those who discharge more
water works. In 1934 the Water Act National               pollutants "(Velazquez 2003). Clearly, water
Property and their respective Regulations in              is considered as an input to increase
1936 and in 1956 and 1958, respectively, the              productivity.
Law on Subsurface Water Use and                               In the area of management, the model is
Regulation, which then began to regulate the              completely centralized, with vertical
extraction and use of water from this source.             instructions flowing downstream. The main
In 1972 the Federal Water Act was issued,                 strategy involved the construction of large
and in 1975 the first National Plan was                   hydraulic works to direct and control the flow
published, which to date remains a                        of the resource (Ortiz et al. 2008). Perhaps
requirement of planning. Since 1982 when                  because of this, the experiences of water
the Federal Law included for the first time               management in Mexico are not encouraging;
fees for use and development of national                  the main criticism lays in the enormous
waters, surface and subsurface there have                 environmental      impact     of     watershed
been two major reforms: the introduction of               transferring and inefficient management
quotas based on regional availability (1986),             services (Barkin 2006b). Also, there are
and consideration of charges for discharge of             accusations of aquifers overexploitation, and
contaminated wastewater (1991).                           inability to implement conservation policies,
    The declared main objectives of the                   treatment and reuse both by local operators
National Water Act of 1992 (NWA) are to                   and the federal enforcing agency, Conagua.
promote an integrated water management; to                The problem suggests the relevance of an
increase the participation in financing,                  alternative    management       with      active
construction and management of waterworks;                participation of new actors.
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   8

    As noted above, the NWA considers                     service under concession from the public
private      participation     in     financing,          service utility.       Experiences with the
construction and operation of federal water               bipartisan model begin to appear in Mexico,
infrastructure and in providing relevant                  like the service concession in Aguascalientes,
services. This is done on three premises: 1)              the semi-privatized system in Saltillo,
participation and private investment is a                 Coahuila, and the desalination system and
means not an end in itself, 2) the federal water          sewage treatment in Los Cabos, State of Baja
infrastructure will not be privatized because             California Sur (Garza 2006; Barkin 2006a;
the law does not alter the nature of public               Pombo 2008). Perhaps the most instructive
good that has under Article 113 of the                    example is at Los Cabos, where drinking
Mexican Constitution, and 3) the law does not             water is the limiting factor for development in
provide mechanisms for change of                          general. As Pombo (2008) reports, with an
ownership, but only mechanisms of                         absolute limitation to the provision of water
participation and private investment for                  from conventional sources, the supply occurs
efficiency and capitalization of domestic                 through desalination plants. From an
goods. The three new figures that are created             economic perspective, it is the only
in federal water management, in addition to               alternative for real state and hotel investors to
traditional public procurement for works,                 continue in business, while from the
supplies and services regulated by other laws,            viewpoint of environmental impacts such
are “turnkey contracts”, concessions for the              facilities produce limited effects that are
provision of services using the hydraulic                 mostly due to electricity consumption and
infrastructure already built, and concessions             brine discharges at sea.
for the construction and operation of new                     But Pombo also noted that the economic
infrastructure.                                           growth in Los Cabos based on a technology
    It is evident that in the sector’s policies           such as desalination is indirectly creating
there is a trend towards greater private                  large social and environmental problems.
involvement in providing public services and              This is because the solution to water supply
the pursuit of economic efficiency in a design            for the hotels creates, paradoxically,
ruled by market behavior. The rigid                       increased demand for domestic supply given
framework of conventional governance has                  that the growth of the tourism industry
contributed to the spread of this model, since            intensifies labor migration to the area,
after the enactment of the NWA water                      pressing local authorities to meet that
services were transferred to local authorities,           demand. The installation of a desalination
although this transfer did not come with an               plant for community service through the
allocation of financial resources. The result of          bipartite scheme became the best option, so
this decentralization is that about 2500 local            that from November 2006 it is operating in
operators lack the resources to continue                  Los Cabos a plant that provides water to the
providing the service and are forced to yield             public water authority. One of the biggest
to private operators.                                     challenges for local authorities is to design
     The premise of water management is                   mechanisms to distribute the costs of
expanding service coverage and sanitation for             desalination of the resource to the entire
the welfare of people. Along these lines, the             population served (Pombo, 2008).
investments and professionalization have                      Pombo pointed out that in Los Cabos
given way to the combined management                      market forces create a scenario where the
model, where the private sector provides the              tourist developers themselves treat their own
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   9

sewage, in what might be considered an                    New Water Culture (NWC): Example of
archetype for tourism development for other               Tripartite Model
parts of Mexico where the industry is the
main source of pollution (Pombo 2008). As                     A proposal generating growing sympathy
Los Cabos hotels are near total reuse of water,           among large international organizations like
the possibility of the beaches being affected             the World Bank or the World Health
by sewage pollution is substantially reduced,             Organization is a water management model
thus preserving the aesthetic value of the                called "tripartite" model. The initiative,
beaches and resulting in significant economic             which includes public, private and social
benefits by ensuring the quality of the                   actors originally emerged in Spain as a social
recreational facilities.                                  movement opposed to the national water
     Criticism to the bipartisan of the model             policy of the Government of 1999-2004,
has also emerged. The main criticism is that              which proposed an ambitious infrastructure
by privatizing a vital resource it violates the           program to build huge dams and other public
fundamental right of universal access to                  works that would facilitate the water transfer
water; the argument is that only those who                on a large scale from the Ebro River in the
can afford it will have access to the resource.           northeastern region of Spain to the semi-arid
It is also argued that this model has failed to           south (Barkin, 2006a).
develop sustainable management because the                    The NWC is rooted on the principle of
revenues of the water utilities do not recover            sustainable development (idea based on the
the actual costs of providing the service, also,          integration of economic development, social
the analysis of experiences in Latin America              welfare and consideration of environmental
also shows that "corruption is an inherent part           limits) and proposes a comprehensive
in the privatization of water" (Hall et al.               assessment of the proposals in relation to the
2001). The list goes on: often the model has              social appropriation of water in terms of the
failed to fulfill the promises of efficiency and          limited      availability     of    resources,
effective expansion in coverage, and the                  considerations of social justice, appreciation
extensions made of the networks have been                 of the multiple environmental values of water
offset by cuts in service caused by the                   from the local perspective and the
inability of large segments of the population             simultaneous analysis of supply and
to pay for the service (Hall 2001, Hall et al.            sanitation. The Management tools to operate
2001; Barkin 2004)                                        the model are property rights and collective
                                                          participation. Both emerged from the
New Water Culture                                         approach of Integrated Management of Water
                                                          Resources, which aims to design new policies
    Recent experiences in different countries             that include the fundamental principles of the
favor reforms to the conventional modes of                NWC that asserts that water policies should
water management. The breach is growing                   encourage two key issues: 1) objectivity and
between the model which assumed water                     impartiality on the operator agencies together
demand and supply solutions promoted                      with adequate information and technical
through public works programs (Barkin,                    expertise in the process of decision making,
2006b), and an alternative approach that                  2) inclusion of the needs of the ecosystems,
offers    a   comprehensive       sustainable             particularly the availability of water when
development.                                              taking     the administrative decisions for
                                                          resource allocation.
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   10

    Because water is a regionally limited                 credibility and confidence in local
resource, the NWC also points to the need for             government and private sector. Worldwide,
an     assessment,     both     socially   and            there are examples where the approach has
economically and ecologically of the best                 been applied to the NWC for different cases
uses of water. Summarizing its basic                      of water and sanitation management (Table
principles, the NWC defines four hierarchal               3).
core functions of water in the environment: 1.                 The Peruvian case is illustrative: the main
Water for Life (basic dignity bottom line).               actions of that experience (World Bank-
Clean water as a human right for the                      PASRALC 2007) consisted of: 1) approving
individual and collective welfare should not              the basic bylaws to establish the legal
be denied to any part of society, not even                framework required in the provision of
using the pretext of financial distress. 2.               services, 2) installing          a supervising
Water for ecosystem maintenance. Ensuring                 neighborhood community council ; 3)
the integrity of the exploited aquifers for               promoting the hiring of local or regional
urban water supply and that the quality of the            specialized operators and 4) transfer the
discharges does not threaten the health of the            services to the specialized operator. This
receiving ecosystems. 3. Water for general                initiated a tripartite alliance where, on the one
social activities.     This includes urban                hand, the local municipal government fixed
services, health, sanitation, and social                  water fees (by virtue of its legal authority),
cohesion by equitable supply to all groups. 4.            but with the consent of the population and the
Water for economic growth and development                 establishing of explicit levels of quality and
in general. Any productive activity and of                coverage; local authorities are still the owners
course the quality of life and social welfare             of the infrastructure but the people and the
require water as a basic input.                           specialized operator support the task of
  According to international experience, the              improving and expanding the system in a
tripartite model has greater sustainability               participatory         management          model,
because: 1) the ownership and commitment                  establishing the rights and duties of users and
of people to the system, 2) the ability of the            the specialized operator. On the other hand,
user to monitor the quality of the service , 3)           the population, through a local community
transparent      accountability,     4)     the           board, monitors the quality of service that
identification of opportunities for investment            users receive. Finally, the expert operator
planning and execution; 5) the neutralization             hired by the city provides water services and
of political engineering and patronage, 6) the            sanitation.
shared vision of development and 7) the
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   11

Table 3
Alternative Experiences in Water Management
  Lusaka, Zambia Monthly Card Water Payment System,
                     Resident Development Committees
  Malawi             Piped Supply for Small Communities
  Durban,            Metro Water: Private Sector Partnerships to Serve the Poor
  Sudáfrica          Semi-Pressure System with Ground Tank
  Guinea             Leased Contract Water Supply
  Ivory Coast        SODECI's Experience in Water Provision
  Kano, Nigeria      Public Toilets with Private Management
  India              Cost-Effective and Appropriate Sanitation Systems in Sulabh International
                     Social Service Organization
  Sri Lanka          Community Micro-planning (the model later spreads to Bangladesh, South
                     Africa, Poland, Chile and some Central American countries)
  Burkina Faso       Demand metering to improve services of urban sanitation
  Uganda             Safe Water Supply and Sanitation and Waste Recycling and Re-Use
  Tanzania           Ibungilo Community Clean Water Supply Project
  Colombia           Community as Drinking Water Provider in a Low-Income Area
  Brasil             Rehabilitation of Urban Areas; Guarapiranga Project
  Bolivia            Pro-Poor Water and Sewer Concessions
                     Formal and informal networks of water suply
  Chile              Program of protection of high Andes wetlands, Rural water supply program
  Perú               New water operators, Changes in the management model to improve the
                     sustainability of water supply and sanitation in small communities.
                     Experiences in strategic planning
                     Pilot project to improve water and sanitation management and sustainability
                     in a small districts
Source: Altaf and Hughes 1994; Goethert and Hamdi 1997, Simon and Laurie 1999; World Bank 2001; CARE-
PROPILAS 2005; People et al. 2006, Gilbert 2007; World Bank PASRALC 2007.

New Water Culture (NWC) Outlook in                        regulations that set the stage for property
Mexico                                                    rights and a market for utilities. There are
                                                          national experiences of the bipartite model
     Mexican water policy pretends to direct              that sets the stage (Barkin, 2006b; Pombo,
water management towards the conservation                 2008) and open the possibility of
of the hydrological cycle, comprehensive and              implementing a more advanced model. The
sustainable use of resources, and improving               missing link is institutional development. For
the quality of life, among others. In order to            example, there should be generated the figure
reach those goals changes in the legal system             of neighborhood committees, with at least
must be made (Carabias et al. 2005), creating             three functions: 1) Monitor the quality of
a good opportunity to include the principles              services, 2) Determine the authority along
of NWC in the upcoming legislation.                       with the quality and price of water and a
    In Mexico there is no practice of                     membership fee (refers to marginal cases,
application of this model, but there                      establishing a basic provision of water at a
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   12

special price) 3) Define the authority along              up agencies, among other settings, where a
with the partnership with the specialized                 public-private arrangement sets targets based
agency.                                                   on standards, performance, results and
    Mexico is still developing its water                  money.       The     tripartite    management
policy, but with no doubt it should be directed           approaches a network governance model that
towards integral management. The country is               emphasizes the importance of interaction
making efforts to solve the problems of water             between different actors, where stakeholders
and sanitation supply. The dynamics of                    are developed in an area of responsibility and
development is promoting new urban ideas,                 the state guarantees the quality of the
and validated models are required to guide                relationship.
effective    management        and    promote                  The NWC is an example of this, it is
sustainable development for the citizens and              proposed as a viable alternative for
the ecosystem. Real state development is an               sustainable ecosystem development, as it
opportunity to implement new strategies to                incorporates all stakeholders in the process of
prevent the negative effects of inadequate                water management. The experiences
planning already happening in other parts of              reviewed for the elaboration of this article
Mexico, in that context the model of the                  show that the main challenge for its
NWC should be perceived as the most                       implementation is to articulate rights and
advanced management tool available to                     responsibilities among the players assigned to
regional planners to prevent failures of the              the three main universes in a governance
past and to promote sustainability in the                 framework that promotes better interaction
management of water resources.                            for the integral development of society. Water
                                                          management involves multiple interests,
Conclusions                                               which are manifested locally. In this sense,
                                                          collective participation in the planning
    The evolution of water management                     process and decision making has proven to
models is related to the development strategy             be a good tool to produce equitable and
and the institutional structure of a country.             holistic     solutions.     Participation    of
The image of development of a society is the              stakeholders should be pursued in an
result of the most permanent and structural               atmosphere of mediation and consensus,
national economic policies, the way a society             which discuss and understand different points
uses its resources, relates to other societies,           of view and propose alternative solutions (see
and make their own institutional structures,              Ruelas 2006) and in a scenario of
(Sartor 2006). In the evolution of water                  responsibility. The governance of water
management in the world we identify three                 requires     an     approach      with    these
models: 1) Government run management, 2)                  characteristics.
Public-private management, and 3) Tripartite                   Mexico's water policy should be directed
management, or public, private and social                 toward integrated management, effective
management. The first corresponds to the                  water governance requires this. New real
Weberian model of governance based on                     state developments create opportunities to
principles of hierarchy, neutrality and public            apply better planning strategies and here it is
service career, where the state is the                    suggested that the model of the NWC opens a
governing body of public affairs. The second              route to press forward these initiatives.
is the design of the NPM proposed
innovation, improvement in services, setting
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   13

References                                                Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Retrieved
                                                          from
Altaf, M. A. and Hughes, J.A. (1994).                     http://www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/policy_resear
   Measuring the Demand for Improved                      ch/library/public_private_partnerships.pdf.
   Urban Sanitation Services: Results of a                Accessed May 2011.
   Contingent       Valuation     Study     in            Conagua.(2005). Información proporcionada
   Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Urban                          por la Gerencia, La Paz, Conagua-
   Studies, 31, 10, 1763-1776.                               Gerencia Estatal de BCS.
Banco Mundial-PASRAL. (2007). Los                         Conabio. (1998). División de Evaluación y
   nuevos operadores en las pequeñas                         Alerta     Temprana       del   Programa,
   ciudades del Perú: Diseño de un nuevo                     “Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el
   modelo de gestión sostenible de los                       Medio         Ambiente         PNUMA”,
   servicios de agua y saneamiento, Lima,                    www.unep.org/ geo/ geo4/ (Accesed May
   BM.                                                       7, 2007).
Banco Mundial-PASRAL. (2007). Un nuevo                    Crozier, M., Huntington, S. and Watanuki, J.
   acuerdo social: El cambio de modelo de                    (1975). The crisis of democracy. Report on
   gestión para mejorar la sostenibilidad de                 the governability of democracies to the
   los servicios de agua y saneamiento en las                Trilateral Commission. New York: NYU
   pequeñas ciudades, Lima, Programa de                      Press.
   Agua y Saneamiento Región América                      Donolo, C. (1999). ¿Cómo gobernar
   Latina y el Caribe PPPL-LEDEL S.A.C.                      mañana?. Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg-
Barkin, D. (2004). Las contradicciones de la                 Círculo de Lectores.
   gestión del agua en México, en Denise                  El Colegio de México,(2003). Agua para las
   Soares Moraes et al., Gestión y Cultura del               Américas en el Siglo XXI, México,
   Agua, Tomo I, México, IMTA-COLPOS,                        Comisión Nacional del Agua.
   44-71.                                                 Finnegan, W. (2002, April 8). Letter from
______, (2006a) coord., La gestión del agua                  Bolivia: Leasing the Rains: The world is
   urbana en México- retos, debates y                        running out of fresh water and the fight to
   bienestar-, México, Universidad de                        control it has begun. The New Yorker.
   Guadalajara.                                              Retrieved             from           http://
______. (2006b). La Gestión Popular del                      www.newyorker.com/ archive/ 2002/ 04/
   Agua: Respuestas locales frente a la                      08/ 020408fa_FACT1.
   globalización centralizadora, Futuros,                 Garza, G. (2006). Visión ciudadana de un
   II,7.                                                     sistema de agua semi-privatizado, Saltillo.
Carabias, J. et al. (2005). Agua, Medio                      en David Barkin, coord., Gestión del Agua
   Ambiente y Sociedad: hacia la gestión                     Urbana en México, México, Universidad
   integral de los recursos hídricos en                      de Guadalajara, 103-126.
   México, México, UNAM-COLMEX-                           Gentes, I. et al. (2006). Protección de
   Fundación Gonzalo Río Arronte.                            Humedales Altoandinos y programa de
CARE-PROPILAS. (2005). Experiencias de                       agua potable rural en Chile. Dos acciones
   planificación estratégica en agua potable y               locales de políticas públicas y gestión
   saneamiento rural en municipalidades                      comunitaria, en Denise Soares Moraes et
   distritales, Perú, LEDEL S.A.C.                           al., Gestión y Cultura del Agua, Tomo I,
CMMA. (1999). “Public Private Partnership:                   México, IMTA-COLPOS, pp.113-133.
A Guide for Local Government”. Canadian                   Gilbert, A. (2007). Water for All: How To
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   14

   Combine Public Management with                            agua Tomo II, Jiutepec, Morelos,
   Commercial Practice for the Benefit of the                IMTA/COLPOS, pp. 216-232.
   Poor?. Urban Studies, 44, 8, 1559–1579.                Natera, A. (2005). “Nuevas estructuras y
Goethert, R. and Nabeel, H. (1997),                          redes de gobernanza”, Revista Mexicana
   Community Action Planning-Wall Chart.                     de Sociología 67(4): 781-817.
   Retrieved from http:// web.mit.edu/                    National      Council     for   Public-Private
   urbanupgrading/ upgrading/ resources/                     Partnership (NCPPP), (2007). Available
   useful-downloads/ WallChart.pdf.                          in http:// ncppp.org/.
Gunnerson, C. (1991). “Cost of Water Supply               Nativ, R. (2004.) “Can the Desert Bloom?
   and Wastewater Disposal: forging the                      Lessons Learned from the Israeli Case”,
   missing link”, en H. Rosen y A. Durkin                    Ground Water, vol. 42, núm. 5, pp.651–
   Keating, Water and the City: The Next                     57.
   Century. Public Works Historical Society,              Ogunbiyi, C. (2004). “PPPs: Fad or Good for
   Chicago, American Public Works Assn.                      SADC?”, SADC PPP Pathway, SADC
Habermas, J. (1999). Problemas de                            Banking Association, PPP Capacity
   legitimación en el capitalismo tardío,                    Building Programme, Newsletter No. 1,
   Madrid: Cátedra.                                          July.
Hall, D. (2001). “Water in Public Hands,                  Ortiz Rendon, G., F. Cruz y J.C. Valencia,
   London, Public Service International                      (2008). Aspectos relevantes de la política
   Research Unit, Greenwich University”, en                  del agua de México, Retrieved from http://
   David Hall, Kate Bayliss y Edmundo                        www.oieau.fr/ ciedd/ contributions/ at2/
   Lobina, Still fixated with Privatization: A               contribution/ rendom.htm. (Consulted July
   critical review of the World Bank's Water                 31, 2008).
   Resources Sector Strategy London,                      Ouyahia, M. A.[online publication], (2006).
   PSIRU, Greenwich University, pp. 35-55.                   “Public-Private Partnerships for Funding
International Development Research Centre                    Municipal Drinking Water Infrastructure:
   (IDRC) [online publication], (2007).                      What are the Challenges?” Discussion
   “Public Private Partnership for Urban                     Paper,       Retrieved     from      http://
   Environmental Management”, Retrieved                      policyresearch.gc.ca/               doclib/
   from http:// www.crdi.ca/ en/ ev-100052-                  DP_SD_PPP_200605_e.pdf>, consulted
   201-1-DO_TOPIC.html. Consulted May                        October 22, 2008.
   5, 2009.                                               Peters, G. (2003) “The capacity to govern:
Kjær, M. (2004). Governance, Cambridge,                      Moving back to the center?”, VIII
   Polity Press.                                             Congreso internacional del CLAD sobre
Martínez, O. And Concepción, M. (2006).                      la Reforma del Estado y la Administración
   “Gestión del Agua Urbana en la Segunda                    Pública, 28-31.
   mitad del siglo XX. Esquemas                           Pierre, J. and Guy, P. (2000). Governance,
   Institucionales, actores y agentes sociales:              politics and the state, Political analysis,
   1950-2004”, in David Barkin, La gestión                   London, Macmillan Press.
   del Agua Urbana en México, México,                     Pombo O. A. ,Breceda A. Valdez A. (2008)
   Universidad de Guadalajara, 57-63.                        Desalination and Wastewater Reuse as
Ruelas Monjardin, Laura. 2006, “La                           Technological Alternatives in Arid,
   planeación colaborativa en el uso del agua:               Tourism        Booming       Region      of
   el caso de Actopan, Veracruz”, en                         Mexico.Frontera Norte, 20, 39, 191-216.
   Verónica Vázquez, Gestión y cultura del                Prats, J. (2005). De la burocracia al
Social Sciences Research Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-15 (December 2012), ISSN: 2147-5237   15

   management, del management a la                          Retrieved from http:// www.uneca.org/
   gobernanza, Madrid, Instituto Nacional de                chdcs/ chdcs3/ PPPs_CHDCS_3.pdf,
   Administración Pública.                                  consulted October 20, 2008.
Rhodes, R.A.W. (1996). The new                            Vallespín, F. (2000). El futuro de la política,
   governance:       Governing       without                Madrid, Taurus.
   government, Political Studies, 44, 4, 652-             Velázquez, S. V. (2003). Política del Agua y
   667.                                                     Participación     Social:     del    modelo
Santes-Álvarez, R. (2009). Replanteando la                  centralizado al modelo de gestión integral
   interacción gobierno-sociedad: Lecciones                 por cuenca, in Patricia Ávila García, Agua,
   de la gobernación ambiental en la Franja                 Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo en el Siglo
   México-Estados        Unidos.       Grupo                XXI, Zamora, Michoacán, El Colegio de
   Eumednet, U. de Málaga. Retrieved from                   Michoacán/SEMARNAT/IMTA, 203-211.
   http:// www.eumed.net/ libros/ 2009c/                  World Health Organization (WHO). (1997).
   603. Acceso ene. 2010.                                   Guidelines for drinking-water quality:
Sartor, A. (2006). Modelos de desarrollo.                   Surveillance and control of community
   Retrieved           from            http://              supplies, Genova, WHO.
   www.frbb.utn.edu.ar/ carreras/ materias/               World      Bank.      (1980).     Appropriate
   ing_soc/       modelos_de_desarrollo.pd,                 Technology for Water Supply and
   consulted October 8, 2008.                               Sanitation: Summary of Technical and
Simon, M. And Nina, L. (1999). An                           Economic Options, USA, World Bank.
   Emerging Logic of Urban Water                          __________ [online publication. (2001).
   Management,Cochabamba,            Bolivia.               Upgrading urban communities a resourse
   Urban Estudies, 36, 2, 341-357.                          for Practitioners.Retrieved from , consulted March 15, 2008.
   Delivery:    Water and Sanitation”,
You can also read