The Political Economy of Water Service Privatization in Mexico City, 1994–2011

Abstract

This paper chronicles the implementation of water service privatization to combat severe water shortage in Mexico City, also known as the Distrito Federal (DF), from 1994 to 2011. Initially, the DF's administration successfully employed private actors to provide more extensive and efficient service while retaining public control of infrastructure. Privatization in the DF was unique in its competitive service structure and the support provided it by the city's populist government. However, political manoeuvring stalled progress in contract governance, network extension, and regional coordination, suggesting the need for more robust accountability structures linking municipal and national political outcomes to household service delivery. An improved theoretical understanding of how stakeholders can collectively manage common pool resources in the urban environments of middle-income countries is also essential.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the sponsors of the Torang Jahan Fellowship for Globalization Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles for their initial funding of this research. The author also thanks Dr Randall Crane, Dr Stephen Commins, and the journal's anonymous referees for their ideas and criticisms of this study. Any errors or omissions in the document are the responsibility of the author.

Notes

1. Mexico City and the Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF) refer to the same area and are used interchangeably in this paper.

2. Note that the Outer ZMCM and Outer ZMVM statistics exclude the population of the DF and the ZMCM, respectively, from their counts. Data for Mexico as a whole and for the entire ZMVM—the broadest definition of the total urbanized area of Mexico City—are also provided to contextualize the access continuum.

3. The substantial involvement of Suez is particularly notable considering its highly publicized withdrawal from operations in much of Latin America in the early years of the 21st century.

4. The General Direction of Hydraulic Construction (DGCOH) and the Water Commission of the Federal District (CADF) were merged into one entity, called the SACM, in 2003.