Policy and Society, Volume 30, Issue 4, December 2011, Pages 267-283
“Missing the multiple dimensions of water? Neoliberal modernization in Mexico City and Buenos Aires”Patricia Romero Lankao,
Purchase NCAR, US Griselda Günther, Research Assistant UAM Xochimilco, Mexico
Available online 26 November 2011.
AbstractPrivate participation in the management of water and sanitation has been firmly promoted and concentrated in a handful of countries and their urban centers. Latin America became one of the main recipients of investment in infrastructure projects involving private participation. However, private participation has accomplished neither the scale nor the benefits anticipated by its promoters. Not only have water and sanitation received only a tiny part of the total investment. These reforms and the theories from which they draw have failed to improve water sustainability and associated social values in urban areas of Latin America. This paper combines a theoretical framework drawing on neoliberalism with evidence from Mexico City and Buenos Aires to explore and reflect on some of the reasons why private participation has neither fulfilled its promoters’ expectations nor improved the multiple dimensions of urban water system management. It finds that the main outcomes of the neoliberal water reform were economic (improvements in registered connection and billing). Yet, other dimensions of water such as overexploitation and contamination (environmental value), unequal access to water, and fragmented and weak institutional settings (political dimension) remain. The main lesson from the reform is that the multiple values of water cannot be addressed by merely passing water utilities along with their complex set of social and environmental problems over to private companies or public utilities.
Abbreviations: AySA, Argentinean Water and Sanitation (Agua y Saneamiento Argentinos S. A.); CADF, Water Commissions of the Federal District; CAEM, Water Commissions of the State of Mexico; CONAGUA or CNA, National Water Commission; DF, Federal District (Distrito Federal); DGCOH, General Direction of Hydraulic Construction and Operation; ETOSS, Tripartite Entity of Sanitary Works and Services; FDN, Democratic National Front; GDP, Gross Domestic Product; ICSID, International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes; IDB, International Development Bank; MCMA, Mexico City Metropolitan Area; OSN, Obras Sanitarias de la Nación (National Sanitation Works); PPIAF, Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility; PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional; PRD, Partido de la Revolución Democrática; PRONASOL, National Solidarity Programme; SACM, Water System of Mexico City; UNDP, United Nations Development Programme; WB, World Bank; WWC, World Water Council
Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Water: Leviathan1 versus markets?
3. Missing the mark? The multiple values of water
4. A water tale of two-cities
4.1. Macro-structural circumstances
4.2. Water situation
4.3. Water management, policies and politics
5. The reforms
5.1. Design and implementation
5.2. Outcomes and the current water situation
6. Concluding remarks
Acknowledgements
References
Further reading
