Drinking water: An overview of the human right to safe drinking water in Mexico

Abstract

Good management of the water resource to guarantee water security in terms of quantity, quality and protection against droughts and floods, is transversal to all aspects of economic development. Solutions must be adapted to the local conditions in each country, basin, city, project or management area, in order to ensure the fulfillment of the human right to safe drinking water, sanitation and healthy environment for water. Mexico has irregular human settlements in urban, rural, ejidal and communal areas, which demand an increase in potable water and sanitation services, which, adding the regularized population, generate a demand for water that the water operation system must meet. To safeguard society from this problem, it is necessary to have good planning, have control establishing priorities in drinking water services, such as: failures in water distribution networks for human consumption, redesign of infrastructure to react adequately in events such as earthquakes, droughts, floods, climate change, population growth (sample aqueducts, dams and treatment plants); quality control of drinking water, institutional capabilities, development of technology, etc. That is, water problems are not just hydraulics, hydrology, water quality, irrigation and drainage, economy problems, etc., but they are also social and human resource training issues. This paper addresses an approach that starts with water security to achieve the fulfillment of the human right to water. Mexico has several institutions working on this issue, through some indicators, it is expected that in the short term, there will be many advances in this issue.