River Basin Organization, the Best Path Towards Integrated Water Resources Management?

Abstract

Since 1992, Mexico has been formally implementing several principles of the policy approach now known as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with the passing of the National Water Law. Several years before, innovations in water management were already being made. More decisively, the institutional arrangement and the 2004 amendment to the Law were reorganized by promoting the creation of executive basin organizations with the confrontation of different views. In spite of the importance of those changes, there are still serious problems surrounding water and there is no simple way to reorganize the role of the federal government as the leading entity in water management. What do we need? Some parties insist on an increased decentralization and involvement of various levels of government; social organizations contemplate a joint management and even delegating functions. On the other hand, a different sector of officers and researchers are aware of the lack of a real water authority capable of motivating and penalizing, as well as encouraging basin management based on a new territorial water management. This shows that the IWRM program is still in an institutional transition regarding its application, since there is no sufficient results so far which justify the institutional roles proposed for its operation. This chapter presents a reflection on what has occurred regarding integrated water resources management, and on whether those basin organizations have responded in a proper way to tasks they were entrusted with, as well as on which are the most convenient institutional roles required in Mexico to be successful in water resources management.