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Financing Wastewater Collection and Treatment on the U.S. – Mexico Border

Bilateral negotiations between the United States (U.S.) and Mexico over the scale, location, and financing of water treatment facilities serving border twin cities frequently break down, leaving water pollution and supply uncertainty problems unresolved. Agreements reached have been reactive to immediate health emergencies, limited in scope, and have failed to address market failures that contributed to the environmental problems in the first place. New institutions created to address environmental concerns over North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have helped both nations plan, build, and finance new facilities in a more coordinated and proactive manner. Yet, the goal of developing locally self-financing municipal water systems on both sides of the border has remained elusive. To illustrate, we use a case study of negotiations over water resources shared by Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora. INTRODUCTION: THE UNITED STATESMEXICO BORDER REGION Rapid population growth along the United States (U.S.)Mexico border, combined with large disparities in the two countries’ incomes and financial resources, has presented challenges to management of transboundary water pollution. In 1980, about 4 million people lived within 100 km of the U.S.-Mexico Border. The border population grew to 10.5 million by 1997 and is projected to double over the next 20 years. Over 90 percent of the border population are clustered in 14 pairs of sister cities. The border region’s most serious public health problems are lack of access to safe drinking water, sewage treatment, and solid and hazardous waste disposal. Of 16.1 million people residing in Mexican border municipalities and U.S. border counties, 12 percent do not have direct access to potable water, 18 percent of the Mexican population, and 3 percent of the U.S. population (Table 1). 30 percent lack access to wastewater treatment facilities, 33 percent of to the Mexican population and 27 percent of the U.S. population. Another 25 percent of Mexico’s border municipalities lacked solid waste disposal facilities. In 1997, only 69 percent of the Mexican border population lived in residences connected to sewage collection systems and only 34 percent of the collected wastewater was treated. As of 1997, less than half of Mexican households along the border had solid waste collected and deposited in sanitary landfills, while 14 percent had no access to solid waste collection services whatsoever. As Table 1 shows, problems are not confined to the Mexican side of the border. U.S. problems are most acute in colonias – low income, unincorporated subdivisions lacking basic public services (Texas AM U.S. GAO). Industrial wastes, such as volatile organic compounds, mercury and cyanide at levels exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards have been found in U.S. water supplies along the border (Igram & White, Johnstone, Sprouse et al., Varady &