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Mexico reported an access rate to piped water of 93.7% and an affordability rate of 0.9%. According to the Millennium Development Objectives, these values suggest that the government is complying w...

This study analysed the impact of a series of socioeconomic variables on the efficiency of production processes used by different economic units belonging to the manufacturing industry in a hydrolo...

The manufacturing industry in Mexico is concentrated in the central and northern region of the country, which is characterized by high water stress. This condition foreshadows a complicated future ...

As the global economy continues to grow and water challenges become more complex and urgent, there is an increasing need for assessing the contributing role of wastewater treatment and reuse to designing strategies for water sustainability. For economic analysis, this need calls for modeling frameworks capable of representing the particularities of the relationship between economic systems and water resources in terms of appropriation from natural sources, utilization by production processes, and generation, treatment, reuse, and discharge of wastewater. We explore an integration of these particularities into an input-output model of the economy designed for technological choice featuring resource endowments as production constraints. We apply the model for studying the intentional reuse of treated wastewater in the regional economy of the Mexico Valley Basin, whose highly intervened hydrology is compromised by unsustainable exploitation of natural sources and minimal treatment of wastewater flows. We design scenarios for testing the response of the economic system to the constraining of groundwater extraction by aquifer recharge and to the reduction of leaks in domestic networks. Our findings indicate that avoiding aquifer overexploitation requires treatment processes to generate up to 1.4 km3yr−1 of high quality water for intentional reuse, while the control of domestic leaks can reduce regional water intake by 13% and, therefore, reduce the required treatment effort to 0.9 km3yr−1. The extent to which these results can support the design of a strategy for water sustainability with empirical relevance for this region ultimately depends on accurate representations of treatment technologies and conveyance infrastructure in economic models. We suggest that detailed representations of technologies for water distribution and wastewater treatment into economy-wide analysis constitute an important field of collaboration for industrial ecologists and input-output economists for the near future.

Water is one of the most important inputs in the production process, especially for the manufacturing sector. However, at the same time, this resource can present shortage problems, mainly due to a lack of knowledge about its value. In most emerging countries, the monetary value of water used in the production process does not necessarily reflect that there is a shortage, or the costs of catchment and treatment. Thus, the real cost of water is not paid. In addition, it is vital that the various manufacturing industries consider the opportunity cost, or shadow price, of consuming water for its production processes. Therefore, this paper estimates the economic value of water (EVW) for the manufacturing industry in a water basin with shortage problems (Valley of Mexico Basin (VMB), Mexico). This is understood as the shadow price, using the concept of production elasticity with respect to water input (eW) and the value of the marginal product (ρW). To that end, we used information from 69,984 economic units surveyed in 2013, and considered one type of production function, i.e., translog. The eW was estimated at 0.061 and the ρW at US $ 19.4/m3. The ρW ranged from US $ 2.3/m3 for the wood sector to US $ 20.1/m3 for the beverage and tobacco sector, demonstrating variation in ρW by sector. The results have important implications for several areas of industrial water management, especially for water basins where this resource presents shortage problems. Any investment in new industrial water supply projects requires information on the industrial EVW. That information is also needed in order to determine how to efficiently distribute scarce water resources across sectors.

A 2011 survey of Mexico City’s households revealed that families prefer alternative sources of drinking water instead of relying in the city’s quality supply services. These include the purchase of bottled water, installation of filtration devices, and other means of water purification. The demand for better water quality was tested by estimating the household’s willingness to pay (WTP), using a contingency valuation (CV) experiment through an open-format questionnaire and by estimating a censored econometric (Tobit) model. The econometric study revealed that the WTP for better water quality is influenced by variables related with distrust of the water quality provided by the City and the organoleptic characteristics of the water supply, as well as spending on bottled water or water purification technologies. The average WTP surcharge for better potable water quality is US$3.1 or 4.7% of the bimonthly water bill, which is about 0.22% of the average family income in Mexico City. The percentage of WTP to income is bigger in poor families. This suggests that improving water quality is of greater importance for lower income families. Findings are consistent with previous studies that estimated the WTP for improvements in the services that supply water to households in the city. These include reduction of inefficiency and intermittency of the supply along with water quality, improve measuring water meters, reducing the obsolescence of the infrastructure and increasing adequate maintenance. Our research is the first to estimate the WTP for better water quality in Mexico City and constitutes a reference point for those that address the problem of water quality and its impact on the welfare and income of families.

Economic and population growth in Mexico City (CDMX) is the main cause of an increase in water demand against a naturally limited endowment, which increases the gap between water demand and supply. In a water scarcity environment, households are facing pressure to maintain their involvement in the city&rsquo, s only operating body, the Water System of Mexico City (SACMEX) total supply. The objective of this work is to measure the inequality in the distribution of drinking water and water subsidies between households connected to the public network of CDMX in order to generate objective indicators of the phenomenon. Having such information provides a baseline scenario of the problem and allows for the delineation of a policy covering the minimum levels of well-being in the supply of drinking water that is appropriate for the most important city in the country. The method consists of measuring inequality through continuous variables estimating the Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient, the targeting coefficient and elasticity in water consumption and in water subsidies among households in CDMX. Data comes from a household survey carried out in 2011, Consumption Habits, Service and Quality of Water by Household in Mexico City (EHCSCA). Results show that drinking water and subsidies present a regressive distribution, benefit high-income households and, to a lesser degree, the poorest households in the city and highlight the urgency and importance for SACMEX to redefine its policy on water distribution, fees and subsidies. The present study&rsquo, s scope can contribute to the monitoring of the distribution of drinking water and of subsidies among household groups. The study justifies that the indicators employed in this work can be used and are recommended as a valuable tool in water management, especially in a dynamic environment.