This is an open door to privatize the water



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CITY OF MEXICO (Apro) .- The 10 decrees promulgated by President Enrique Pea Nieto on Tuesday 5 (precisely the World Environment Day) aim to privatize, even partially, the use and water marketing in 295 of the country 's 757 watersheds, to preserve the environment and ensure the "right of access, disposal and sanitation of the country". water for personal and domestic consumption in a manner sufficient, healthy, acceptable and affordable, as stated in Article 4 of the Constitution, it is not necessary to issue concessions.

To preserve the environment, it was not even necessary to make a new decree, it was enough to extend the presidential decrees that prohibited these basins, that is to say to completely prohibit the Use of water. , precisely to avoid the use of liquid watersheds The best way to preserve the environment is precisely to prevent man from extracting watershed resources. or, in this case, water.

And to allow the partial use of the resource of these basins for human and domestic consumption and public services, it was sufficient to establish one of the provisions found in said decrees and which states: the allocation of national surface water allocations in the partial reserve for domestic use, the National Water Commission grants them [las asignaciones] up to a total volume of ( ) Cubic meters.

This provision opens the door to the use of watersheds that have surpluses (according to studies by the National Water Commission and international civil society organizations that have advised or, at least, approved their decision) to guarantee the right established in the article constitutional quarter in the reform promulgated on February 8, 2012. The basins lose their character of bans, the limits are established for preserve the environment and open the door to the use of water to guarantee the constitutional right.

However, the main objective was to open the door to concessions for private use and, therefore, added an additional specific rule for this: "Volumes available, not committed by the partial reserve established in this Order, may be carried on, used or carried on by way of a grant or an badignment previously issued by the Water Board.

Without restriction

With this provision They open wide the door so that the water of these basins, protected since 1930, is intended to guarantee the volumes required by the mining, oil companies and privatization of the urban water networks, as well as the water supply. organization of civil society Water for all, but also other organizations preoccupied by the environment and the tendency to privatization accentuated during this six-year term.

It is obvious that to achieve the objectives announced by the National Water Commission and that the World Wildlife Fund is questioning, it is not necessary to authorize the granting of concessions; but it was essential to fulfill the commitment that the current administration had made with the individuals interested in exploiting and commercializing this natural resource.

The decrees are the last link in a series of actions, all in the same direction: allow the exploitation, use and private marketing of water. First, the granting of these concessions for the private use of water, which was conducive since the beginning of the current government, through the first holder of Conagua in this badennium , David Korenfeld, who was more obvious in the case of the Constellation Marques brewery, to the detriment of the farmers of the Mexicali Valley and the inhabitants of the same capital, who provoked the social defense movement of the water.

Second, two national water bills were introduced, first by Korenfeld himself, in March 2015; and earlier this year, with a new project promoted by Ignacio Pichardo Lechuga, Mexican MP and Chair of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Commission (19659002). Opposition to the PRI to adopt a law in this sense, Pea Nieto opts for presidential decrees, which are legal are a way to recover the Congress. Of course, the president and his team have perfectly calculated the times and thought it was the perfect time to do it because, in particular, the Mexican political clbad was distracted by the presidential election process.

This is not the opposition. Conagua, Roberto Ramrez de la Parra, who chose the moment to denounce this new attempt to open a highway to the privatization of the exploitation, use and marketing of the Water, but the same President of the Republic; Knowing that it was the last chance to do so, they decided to play their last letter.

On the other hand, throughout the six years, the protection that Pea Nieto gave to various business groups, such as the constitutional controversies that, in the early days of 2014, were presented for the first time against the guidelines on the rights of hearings published by the Federal Telecommunications Institute; and, later, against the ecological tax that the Zacatecas Congress approved for taxing mining companies.

As the decrees published in the Official Journal of the Federation on Wednesday 6, to open the door to private parties for the exploitation, use and marketing of water in nearly 300 watersheds (ie the equivalent of 55% of the country's lakes and rivers) are part of the commitments that Pea has made with certain business groups in order to give them the legal warranties of having volumes the mining companies , the oil companies that privatize water systems. Once the legal hurdle is resolved, the concessions will begin to circulate.

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