Participative management of water for domestic use: the case of San Francisco Huilango, Tochimilco, Puebla.

Abstract

This study analyzes the governance system of water in the community management model for domestic use in San Francisco Huilango, Tochimilco, Puebla, based on the principles of governance proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with the objective of evaluating whether the system is effective, efficient and inclusive, and helping to adjust it where necessary. To that effect, field work and office work were combined to conduct the review of various secondary sources. A total of 68 surveys were applied to social actors and 12 semi-structured interviews directed at key stakeholders. The model studied, a local community adaptation based on integrated water resource management (IWRM) reflected six out of twelve indicators analyzed; therefore, from OECD’s approach and with its scoring, the water governance system is not effective and only moderately efficient. However, its capacity to create trust among the population stands out as well as to guarantee that decision making is done from bottom to top, in an inclusive and transparent way. The study’s conclusion is that in order to achieve effective and efficient water governance, it is urgent to strengthen the management capacities of rural communities and to promote their social, political and legal recognition.