Water Resources in Mexico: A Conceptual Introduction

Abstract

Water use and management is of crucial importance for everyday life and also for productive processes, as well as for the conservation and recovery of ecosystems. In only two decades (1990–2010), water consumption on the planet has doubled. In Mexico, due to population growth and agricultural and industrial production, water availability per person has become increasingly limited. This shrinking water availability is partly a consequence of the geo-ecological distribution of the population given that 58 per cent of its national territory has drylands - semi-arid, arid and hyper-arid (desert) ecosystems - that are below the average national rainfall. Due to climatic uncertainty all processes of planning for human demand and for production requirements are highly uncertain. Furthermore, it is precisely in these drylands that the main irrigation districts are located, that 70 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the agricultural sector is generated, and that 92 per cent of the irrigated lands are located, with an overall efficiency of water use of below 40 per cent. Agriculture consumes most of Mexico's water reserves (77 per cent), followed by domestic consumption with 13 per cent and industrial use with 10 per cent (CONAGUA, 2009).