Mexico City, July 30.- The federal government has classified the three-month drinking water shortage emergency in the Monterrey metropolitan area as a “national security issue . ”
With this decision, the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will take control of the private water concessions—awarded to several state-owned companies—in order to address the water crisis, which has spread to 18 municipalities in Nuevo León. This is the first time that authorities have taken control of these concessions due to a public matter.
The presidential decree published this afternoon in the Official Gazette of the Federation establishes the immediate action plan to address this crisis and provide resources for public urban and domestic use in the affected areas.
The document, which the president signed this morning during his press conference, states: "As a matter of public utility, public interest, and national security, it is ordered that existing water rights be temporarily utilized through the provisional modification or reduction of concessioned volumes intended for uses other than domestic and urban public uses."
To this end, he adds, the National Water Commission (Conagua) may enter into the necessary coordination agreements with concessionaires and local authorities to implement the aforementioned measure.
"The volumes of water subject to the measures established in this decree will be delivered directly from the extraction point in the concessionaire's infrastructure to the distribution network, in coordination with the state utility, as long as the emergency persists, for which the necessary technical actions and measures must be taken," the decree adds.
This amount of resources must be accounted for by installing measuring devices , which are the responsibility of the Nuevo León operating agency.
