Opportunities and Constraints to Improved Water Markets in Mexico

Abstracts

Throughout the world, the growing demands for potable water, irrigated agriculture, and environmental services is putting increasing pressure on finite supplies of freshwater resources (xcWorld Bank, 1993). Because of increasing demand and finite supplies, new methodologies and new systems for more efficient and equitable distribution of water between competing users need to be developed. Traditionally, centralized, state managed, command-and-control systems have been employed to ensure equitable distribution of water and to provide subsidized water delivery services to farms and cities. But poor state management, increasing fiscal pressures on central governments, increasing concern about the environmental effects of large catchment and irrigation systems, and the continual growth of urban populations have led certain governments and agencies to rethink the role of government in water resources management. A new paradigm of decentralized management, user control of water delivery services, transferable water-use rights, and water markets has emerged. Often this paradigm remains as an idea propelled by economists and policy advisors, with little analysis of how this paradigm has functioned in the field (xcEaster and Hearne, 1995); (xcRosegrant and Gazmuri Schleyer, 1994); (xcRosegrant and Binswanger, 1994).

This chapter is based on Hearne and Trava (1997) paper.