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Stanford historian unearths greed-drenched origins of Mexico's groundwater crisis

Author  :       Source  :    Stanford University     2014-10-27

A study discovers how politically well-connected business interests helped put Mexico's groundwater supply on a path toward unsustainability through a historical analysis of agrarian reform and hydraulic technology.

Mikael Wolfe, an assistant professor of Latin American and environmental history from Stanford University, has brought to light the shady story of groundwater pumping in 20th-century Mexico. As Mexico's water problem is now described as a matter of national security, Wolfe's research is especially timely. He found that today's groundwater crisis can be traced back to the 1920s, in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), much earlier than most water scholars and policymakers have assumed.

"Although the Revolution happened a century ago," Wolfe says, "decisions about groundwater extraction continue to impact water quality and supply issues in Mexico today."

Wolfe's research centers on "La Laguna," a region of arid north-central Mexico that proportionately received the most ejidos from Cárdenas. Wolfe found evidence that the Mexican government was warned about the overuse of groundwater resources in the 1930s. Mexican agriculturalists – by far the biggest groundwater users – were paving the way toward environmental disaster. By the mid-20th century, Wolfe observes, the estimated national supply of groundwater could not keep pace with rapidly growing demand as Mexico's population boomed. And with lots of money to be made, the water problem was left unresolved.By the 1970s, the Revolution's program for social justice tragically turned into what Wolfe calls "water apartheid" in the Laguna. "In other words," he said, "the region's commercial agricultural economy created a big disparity between so-called 'small' private landholders and ejidos regarding access to water."

When water became scarcer during frequent droughts, the wealthier private landholders could afford far more motorized groundwater pumps than the ejido farmers. When wells dried up and pumping-related problems could no longer be ignored, the Laguna reached a state of groundwater crisis.

As a result, many water-deprived citizens gave up farming for more secure livelihoods. Many, as is still the case today, migrated to the cities and to the United States in order to do so.

Unfortunately, the insatiable demand for water, fueled by developmental imperatives, "persistently trumped concerns for conservation," Wolfe said, adding, "it's a pattern that persists to this day."

 

Editor: Du Mei

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