Parched Paradise: Building a Common Future Amid the Crisis of Modern Water in Mexico City

Authors

Downloads

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2025.1.09

Keywords:

ejidos, Mexico, modern water, water commons, local governance

Abstract

For more than a century, the ejido system, a historic water and land management system in rural areas of Mexico, has provided a spatial and social context for long-term, sustainable water distribution. The advent of public water distribution under the paradigm of so-called modern water has led the authorities of Mexico City to over-rely on a supply-side approach. As a result, the hydrological boundaries of the local and neighboring watersheds have been stretched to a dangerous degree. Furthermore, many residents experience limited access to clean water. Today we need to rethink the role of state, society and the environment to inspire future community practices in the urban context. This article proposes a location and design for a community building in an irregular neighborhood in the western hillslopes of Mexico City, which could function as a platform for collective action, inspired by ejido elements.

How to Cite

Sauer, D. (2025). Parched Paradise: Building a Common Future Amid the Crisis of Modern Water in Mexico City. Blue Papers, 4(1), 130–43. https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2025.1.09

Published

2025-07-09

Issue

Section

methodologies and case studies

Author Biography

David Sauer, Delft University of Technology

David Sauer is a postgraduate with a master of science in architecture from TU Delft and a bachelor of science in architecture from HafenCity University, Hamburg. During his bachelor’s degree studies, he developed a strong interest in sustainability, focusing primarily on the intersection of architecture and water. He combined this interest with his social vision for his native Mexico City. His professional experience includes self-employment, winning a pavilion competition in CityNord, Hamburg, and involvement in residential and public projects.

References

Bakker, Karen J. 2004. An Uncooperative Commodity: Privatizing Water in England and Wales. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199253654.001.0001.

Barkwith, Andrew, and Antonia Godoy-Lorite. 2021. “Socio-Hydrological Vulnerability Index (SHI).” https://app.mexicoshr.com/.

Barnes, Grenville. 2009. “The Evolution and Resilience of Community-Based Land Tenure in Rural Mexico.” Land Use Policy 26, no. 2: 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2008.05.007.

Barsimantov, James, Alexis E. Racelis, Grenville Barnes, and Maria DiGiano. 2010. “Tenure, Tourism and Timber in Quintana Roo, Mexico: Land Tenure Changes in Forest Ejidos after Agrarian Reforms.” International Journal of the Commons 4, no. 1: 293–318. http://dx.doi.org/10.18352/ijc.102.

Brantz Mayer. 1874. “Mexico as it was and as it is.” J. Winchester.

Brown, Kate P. 2017. “Water, Water Everywhere (or, Seeing Is Believing): The Visibility of Water Supply and the Public Will for Conservation.” Nature and Culture 12, no. 3: 219–45. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2017.120302.

Carrera‐Hernandez, Jaime J. 2018. “A Tale of Mexico’s Most Exploited—and Connected—Watersheds: The Basin of Mexico and the Lerma‐Chapala Basin.” WIREs Water 5, no. 1: e1247. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1247.

Chadfield, Sian J., Yongping Wei, and Scott N. Lieske. 2022. “Water Sensitive Communities: A Systematic Review with a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 67, no. 5: 1077–1103. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2147421.

Connolly, Priscilla. 1982. ”Uncontrolled Settlements and Self-build: What Kind of Solution? The Mexico City Case.” In Self-help Housing: A Critique, edited by Peter M. Ward, 118–41. Mansell.

Eakin, Hallie, Amy M. Lerner, David Manuel-Navarrete, Bertha Hernández Aguilar, Alejandra Martínez-Canedo, Beth Tellman, Lakshmi Charli-Joseph, Rafael Fernández Álvarez, and Luis Bojórquez-Tapia. 2016. “Adapting to Risk and Perpetuating Poverty: Household’s Strategies for Managing Flood Risk and Water Scarcity in Mexico City.” Environmental Science & Policy 66 (December): 324–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.06.006.

Escobar, A. 2006. Presentación del Secretario de la Reforma Agraria en una Conferencia de Prensa [Presentation by the secretary of agrarian reform at a press conference]. August 4, 2006, Mexico City. [In Spanish.]

Flores Hernandez, Luis Angel. 2020. “Revisiting the Mexican Ejido: Envisioning Alternative Land Tenures in Guadalajara, Mexico.” In Communities, Land and Social Innovation: Land Taking and Land Making in an Urbanising World, edited by Pieter Van Den Broeck, Asiya Sadiq, Ide Hiergens, Monica Quintana Molina, Han Verschure, and Frank Moulaert, 181–94. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788973779.

Isla Urbana. n.d. “Our Progress.” Accessed November 29, 2024. https://islaurbana.org/en/.

Hausermann, Heidi E. 2014. “Unintended Developments: Gender, Environment, and Collective Governance in a Mexican Ejido.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 104, no. 4: 784–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2014.910075.

Kourí, Emilio. 2015. “La invención del ejido” [The invention of the ejido]. NEXOS, January 1, 2015. https://www.nexos.com.mx/?p=23778.

Linton, Jamie. 2014. “Modern Water and Its Discontents: A History of Hydrosocial Renewal.” WIREs Water 1, no. 1: 111–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1009.

López-Villamar, Sara M., Tomás Martínez-Saldaña, and Jacinta Palerm-Viqueira. 2013. “Communities in the management of drinking water systems: volcano region, Estado de México.” Agricultura, sociedad y desarrollo 10, no.1: 39-58.

Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Canto Classics. Cambridge University Press.

Perló Cohen, M., and A. González. 2005. ? Guerra por el agua en el Valle de México? Estudio sobre las relaciones hidráulicas entre el Distrito Federal y el Estado de México. [War for water in Mexico Valley? Analysis of the hydraulic relationships between the federal district and the state of Mexico]. Programa Universitario de Estudios de la Ciudad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.

Schroeder, Natalia Mariel, and Alicia Castillo. 2013. “Collective Action in the Management of a Tropical Dry Forest Ecosystem: Effects of Mexico’s Property Rights Regime.” Environmental Management 51, no. 4: 850–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9980-9.

Schwarz, Anke. 2021. “Hydraulic Standby: Anticipating Water in Mexico City.” Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization 21, no. 1: 173–96.

Siebe, Christina, and Enrique Cifuentes. 1995. “Environmental Impact of Wastewater Irrigation in Central Mexico: An Overview.” International Journal of Environmental Health Research 5, no. 2: 161–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/09603129509356845.

Tellman, Beth, Julia C. Bausch, Hallie Eakin, John M. Anderies, Marisa Mazari-Hiriart, David Manuel-Navarrete, and Charles L. Redman. 2018. “Adaptive Pathways and Coupled Infrastructure: Seven Centuries of Adaptation to Water Risk and the Production of Vulnerability in Mexico City.” Ecology and Society 23, no. 1: art1. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09712-230101.

Tortajada, Cecilia, and Enrique Castelán. 2003. “Water Management for a Megacity: Mexico City Metropolitan Area.” AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 32, no. 2: 124–29. https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-32.2.124.

Vitz, Matthew. 2018. A City on a Lake: Urban Political Ecology and the Growth of Mexico City. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372097.

Ward, Peter M. 1990. Mexico City: The Production and Reproduction of an Urban Environment. G. K. Hall.