Neoliberalism, water and irrigation in the MezquitalValley, Hidalgo, México

Abstract

The Irrigation District Transfer Program in Mexico is derived from the neoliberal structural
reforms implemented by the federal government since the 1990s. The objective of this work is
to know and analyze the main causes why the majority of irrigators and their representatives,
in the Mezquital Valley, question and have even opposed the implementation of that program.
Qualitative research was carried out, using the theoretical approaches of environmental history
and political ecology, addressing a case study; a review of literature, newspapers and archival
work was carried out, in addition to field work, in which semi-structured interviews were carried
out and irrigators’ meetings were attended. It was found that, for the wastewater irrigation
agricultural area of the Mezquital Valley, the program in question implies that irrigators have
to assume the costs, without subsidies, of the operation of the large filter for incidental reuse of
wastewater from the Mexico Valley, which is the main function that these lands fulfill within
the hydraulic dynamics of the Hydrological-Administrative Region XIII. Hence, the majority of
irrigators question and have even opposed to the program due to the deteriorating conditions of
the irrigation infrastructure, and the high costs involved in its rehabilitation and conservation; and
because they consider that the new concession titles will have to be renewed periodically and they
do not recognize their seniority rights as wastewater users.