The dispute over wastewater in Mexico as a paradoxical ecological-distributive confl ict

Abstract

This article addresses the category of ecological-distributive confl ict from The Global Environmental Justice Atlas project to explain the emergence of environmental justice movements as a response to a certain distribution of pollution burdens or access to environmental resources. The theoretical approach addresses environmentalism of the poor and adds a historical review to understand such an existing paradox. The empirical work was carried out in the Valle del Mezquital, where the discharge of wastewater generated in the Metropolitan Area of the Valle de Mexico presents a paradoxical situation: some farmers perceive the reception of contaminated water as positive. The analysis includes a refl ection on the criteria for evaluating confl ict since the emergence of COVID-19