Water resources and textile maquilas in Tehuacán

ABSTRACT

One of the effects of industrial relocation is environmental deterioration, as more contaminating stages of production which involve greater use of natural resources are relocated to developing countries. Through the case of Tehuacán, we look at the impact of the global on local political-institutional and social-environmental factors. The establishment of textile maquilas intensified contamination and led to over-exploitation, especially of water. To understand the conflicts of interest that were produced in this process, we look at their consequences and identify key factors: displacement of the indigenous population, domination of the textile industry and the conversion of Tehuacán into a ‘maquila city’.

KEYWORDS:

• Tehuacán
• industrial relocation
• water
• contamination
• over-exploitation
• working conditions
• maquila textile

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministerio de Innovación y Ciencia de España [CSO2013-40646-P].