Response indicators

RIVER BASIN COUNCILS AND TECHNICAL GROUNDWATER COMMITTEES INSTALLED

Effective water management demands all the stakeholders’ participation. The most important challenge is expanding water services without further deteriorating water bodies. Integrated watershed management aims at coordinating the conservation, management and development of water, land and other related resources through the participation of stakeholders present in a given watershed, in order to maximize the equitable share of economic benefits of water resources while preserving and restoring freshwater ecosystems (GWP, 2000; GWP, 2003). In Mexico, watershed councils and technical aquifer committees are coordinating and consultative bodies for the National Water Commission, federal, state and municipal government agencies, and representatives of users in a given watershed. Their purpose is to formulate and implement programs and actions to improve water management, develop water infrastructure and relevant services, and preserve watershed resources (DOF, 2004). The indicator River basin councils and technical groundwater committees installed shows the progress made in relation to social participation in water management.

Storage capacity in dams

Among the various hydraulic works built for water management, dams play a key role in managing water resources worldwide. Stored water is used for food production, energy generation and water supply for industrial and household uses. Recent estimates suggest that more than one third of irrigated land worldwide depends on them. Hydroelectric facilities generate nearly one fifth of the world’s electricity (Bird and Wallace, 2001). The indicator Storage capacity of major dams shows the infrastructure available for water storage and the volume that can be managed to meet water needs.

WATER DISTRIBUTION EFFICIENCY IN IRRIGATION DISTRICTS

The use of water for agriculture is the major consumptive use of water at global and national levels (WRI, 1999; UN, 2005; UNEP, 2007; Conagua, 2008a and c). Some water is usually lost during its distribution over the network, due to poor infrastructure, which causes leaks and infiltration in ditches and channels (Mejía-Sáenz et al., 2002). As a result, the volume that actually reaches the plots is lower than that extracted for this purpose. The indicator Efficiency of water distribution in irrigation districts shows the proportion of water that actually reaches farming plots and denotes the volume of water that could be saved annually by improving water distribution efficiency.

POPULATION WITH ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER

After agriculture, urban public use is the second largest use of water in terms of volume. Water supplied to the population goes through purification and sanitation processes. The term potable water refers to water that is suitable for human consumption and should be colorless, odorless, tasteless, transparent and free of pathogenic microorganisms. The lack of access to potable water results in waterborne diseases, which are among the most common causes of morbidity and death. Water-borne diseases that cause gastrointestinal disorders are often the result of consumption of contaminated water (UN, 2002; UNFPA, 2007). The indicator Population with access to drinking water describes a component of the population’s quality of life and of the country's competitiveness in service provisioning. This indicator is used by international organizations like the United Nations (UN, 2007), the World Bank (WB, 2009) and the OECD (IMF et al., 2000; UN, 2003b; UN-WWAP, 2006).

Reuse of treated wastewater

One of the strategies used to reduce pressure on potable water sources is water recycling and reuse. Reusing wastewater may be important, for example, in areas where intensive irrigation is practiced (Dudley and Stolton, 2003), to reduce water extraction in the area. Wastewater requires treatment to make it suitable for reuse. However, in developing countries, raw wastewater is often used directly, thereby exposing both workers and consumers to parasites and chemical pollutants (UN-WWAP, 2006). The indicator Wastewater reuse shows the percentage of non-municipal wastewater that is directly reused, relative to the volume discharged, and which contributes to lower the pressure on natural water sources.