Communities in the management of drinking water systems : volcano region, estado de México

Abstract

In the volcano region in Estado de México, there are controversies between the municipality and the communities about who should manage their resources; among them, six water supply systems for domestic consumption from ice-melt from the volcanoes. Currently the six systems conduct water by gravity to 12 communities, whose first management were in charge of the Secretaría de Recursos Hidráulicos (SRH) during the 1950s, and was later transferred to the Comisión Estatal de Agua y Saneamiento (CEAS) / Comisión del Agua del Estado de México (CEAM), in the 1980s. During these three decades the local distribution consisted in four public taps per community. Starting in 1980, due to the increase in population, each community invested in its distribution network for household taps and defined its own organizational figure. Because of changes in the national legislation, the municipality must manage the distribution networks, charge fees and pay CAEM for the water it consumes. However, the communities have refused to hand over the management of their own distribution networks and for that purpose they have become constituted into various legal figures: Communal Goods Committee (Comité de Bienes Comunales), Ejidatarios Committee (Comité de Ejidatarios), Municipal Delegate (Delegado Municipal) or civil association. The conformation of these legal figures corresponds to a legal void that could afford legality to community organizations that carry out an efficient management and operation of their resources.