Mexico inaugurates the “Forum on the proper recognition of community water management” in the Chamber of Deputies.
“Community water systems have not always received the recognition they deserve”: Patricia Galindo.
Deputy Patricia Galindo Alarcón (PT), in inaugurating the “Forum on the proper recognition of community water management”, highlighted the importance of community management as the fundamental pillar for access to this resource, since “they are not only administrators, they are guardians of life in our territory”.
She maintained that historically, community water systems have operated autonomously, often with very limited resources, but with exemplary organization.
“You have demonstrated that water is best managed under the logic of solidarity and collective care; however, despite their social, environmental, and cultural importance, community water systems have not always received the recognition they deserve. Frequently, their contribution is underestimated or excluded from decision-making processes.”
She emphasized that no one knows the cycle of rainfall, water, and well health better than “you who work them and possess technical, but above all, empirical knowledge, and you deserve to be validated by institutions. While the world is debating the privatization of this vital resource, community systems reach where the market and the State often cannot. May this forum be a space for reflection on a historical debt, so that we may move toward full, fair, and respectful recognition.”
She emphasized that when a community system is strengthened, so too is democracy, “and life is ensured.”
Speaking next, Professor Ricardo Bando Ramírez noted that the recognition of the human right to water is a historic step forward; however, it remains incomplete and underdeveloped because it does not explicitly incorporate community water management.
“From our perspective, we consider this recognition of citizen participation in achieving these goals to be very positive.” However, it seems that this has remained static, and from our point of view, we believe that this should have been enshrined both in the Constitution and appropriately in general laws.”
He recalled that in 1983 it was established that municipalities would be responsible for the following public functions and services: drinking water, drainage, sewage, treatment, etc. This action “erased with a stroke of the pen the more than 80,000 community systems estimated to exist throughout the country.
In other words, municipalities were only empowered to handle this, the distribution of water and other things, and we were erased with a stroke of the pen in the Constitution,” he added.
Later, in a press conference, Representative Patricia Galindo pointed out the need for the Legislative Branch to strengthen Article 115 of the Political Constitution, “since it gives municipalities the responsibility of providing drinking water and sanitation services.”
“Therefore, I see it as necessary that we work together with all those involved, the drinking water systems, the autonomous systems, also the colleagues from native peoples, from Afro-descendant peoples, to work together on a law that simply generates what we all want, to have that vital liquid as a human right, that it is not a commodity and that is why this forum is.”
