Recentralizing state power in decentralized small drinking water system governance in New Mexico, USA

ABSTRACT

We study the role of the state in small drinking water system governance in New Mexico, USA. Using interviews and demographic data, we develop a grounded theory of the political economy of public accountability in decentralized water governance. We find that the state decentralizes water governance by enforcing public accountability requirements in poor, non-white communities that do not meet its standards for drinking water provisioning. By doing so, it relieves itself of the burden of safe drinking water provisioning. We challenge the assumption that state authority is abated through decentralization and contribute to understandings of inequality in water governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Small drinking water systems
• New Mexico
• USA
• decentralization
• water governance
• political economy
• accountability

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Amy Jones for her contributions to the qualitative dataset used in this research. They also thank all the interviewees who took the time to contribute to this research.

Author contributions

Benjamin P. Warner: idea formation, data collection, writing

Tucker Colvin: idea formation, data collection, writing

Ria Mukerji: idea formation, writing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. SDWS development financing organizations and programmes include: (a) New Mexico Finance Authority, NMFA Water Project Fund, Local Government Planning Fund; (b) New Mexico Environment Department, Rural Infrastructure Program; (c) USDA Rural Development, Water and Waste Disposal Direct Loans and Grants, Water and Waste Disposal Guaranteed Loan, Water and Waste Disposal Predevelopment Planning Grants, Emergency Community Water Assistance Grants, Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan, Water and Waste Disposal Revolving Fund, Individual Water and Wastewater Grants; (d) New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, Community Development Block Grant, Community Development Block Grant Colonias Set-Aside, Community Development Block Grant (Planning); (e) Economic Development Administration Department of Commerce, Public Works Program, Economic Adjustment Program; (f) National Rural Water Association, Revolving Loan Fund; (g) Rural Community Assistance Corporation, Environmental Infrastructure Loans; (h) CoBank, Rural Water and Wastewater Lending; (i) New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, Tribal Infrastructure Fund; (j) US EPA, Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovative Act (WIFIA); (k) US Department of the Interior – Bureau of Reclamation, WaterSMART Grants: Small Scale Efficiency Projects, WaterSMART Grants: Water Marketing, Title XVI Water Reclamation & Reuse Programs, Drought Response Program: Drought Resiliency Projects; (l) New Mexico State Legislature, Capital Outlay Funding; (m) North American Development (NAD) Bank, Project Development Assistance Program; (n) Army Corps of Engineers, Section 219: Environmental Infrastructure; (o) Small Business Administration, 504 Fixed Asset Program (Certified Development Company), 7(a) Loan Guarantee, Community Advantage Pilot, Microloan Program; (p) Live Oak Bank, Water and Environmental Program; and (q) private bank.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by the University of New Mexico Sustainable Water Resources Grand Challenge.