Water saving campaign to have little impact, says researcher - Mexico

Mexican national water authority Conagua and the federal government this week launched a 167mn-peso (US$12.9mn) awareness campaign to promote water saving measures in the country in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the ongoing drought.

However, this kind of campaign will have little impact due to the relatively small percentage of water that is used for public consumption, a researcher with autonomous university UNAM's geophysics institute, Luis Marín, told BNamericas.

"In Mexico, agriculture uses around 75% of our water. Public urban use is only around 10%. So we can save as much water as possible in the urban areas, but it's not going to have an effect," Marín said.

Conagua's campaign urges people to change their daily water habits by turning the tap off when washing their hands or brushing their teeth, for example. The measures could cut water use by 50%, Conagua said in a release.

The authority's money would be better spent on reducing the amount of water used in agriculture, according to Marín.

"In the countryside we can really make important savings. If we can lower consumption in rural areas, and have a more intelligent use of fertilizers and pesticides, that will significantly reduce the environmental impact in agricultural zones," Marín said.

The full interview with Luis Marín will be published in this Friday's Water & Waste Perspectives, for subscribers only.

Catherine Setterfield
Business News Americas

Print this
article