The Governance of Bottled Water in Mexico

Slides from my talk at the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Latin American Studies. Organized by the Mexican Students Association at UC Berkeley.

Transcript

1. The Governance of Bottled Water in Mexico DR. RAUL PACHECO-VEGA CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y DOCENCIA ECONÓMICAS (CIDE) CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, USA. SEPTEMBER 29TH, 2016
2. If you are live-tweeting my talk… “Quote” - @raulpacheco #CLASRPV (no need to include the quotes nor the dash) e.g. Bottled water could be ex. of HR2W in dev. countries - @raulpacheco #CLASRPV
3. Bottled water: A global environmental governance paradox  Water should be a global human right (UN Resolution 64/292, July 28, 2010)  Yet, bottled water has grown to become one of the most profitable industries globally.  Commodifying the human right to water (Pacheco- Vega 2015a, b, 2016a, b)
6. Context: Other scholarly treatments of bottled water  Hawkins, Potter and Race (2015) “Plastic Water: The Social and Material Life of Bottled Water” MIT Press.  Material culture treatment of “how bottled water insinuated themselves into our lives”  Gleick (2011) “Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water” Island Press.  From a natural science perspective, a social science perspective on bottled water  Clarke (2005) “Inside The Bottle: An Expose of the Bottled Water Industry”  An activist’s view of the BW industry (briefly takes on the regulatory component too)
7. Context: Other book-length treatments of bottled water  Mascha (2006) Fine Waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most Distinctive Bottled Waters. Quirk Books  !?!?!?!? There is a sommelier for bottled water  Royte (2009) “Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America's Drinking Water” Bloomsbury  A very strong focus on the plastic bottle, but an indictment too of bottled water  Salzman (2012) “Drinking Water: A History” The Overlook Press  From the tap water perspective, a legal and historical view of why bottled water has taken over our lives
8. Packaged Rights: Essays on the Global Politics of Bottled Water  Components:  Study on ENGO mobilizations against Nestlé in Canada and the United States (WPSA, MPSA, CPSA)  Research on determinants of bottled water consumption in Mexico (w/Alfredo Ortega, RISSA, PMRC), stories about BW (w/Laura Estrada), marketing (w/Karina Leyva), and mobilizations (w/Daniela Ramirez) – book in Spanish, chapter in Spanish, chapter(s) in English volume  Analysis of anti-bottled water vs. pro-tap water campaigns in US and Canadian universities (CPSA)  Work on the ethics of “ethical bottled water” (w/ Christiana Peppard, Fordham University)  Investigation of new regulatory frameworks (or lack thereof) for bottled water in cities (Water Centric Cities, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee)
9. A conceptual model of market intervention in water governance Privatization Marketization Commodification How is water affected by market interventions? Privatization of a water utility or the implementation of new models of alternative delivery service models (ADS) Broadly speaking, market-based policy instruments such as water markets and water trading permits and their implementation at local, regional and national scales. Multinational corporations who undertake the commodification of water resources in the form of soda (pop/soft drinks) or bottled water Source: My own conceptualization after Bakker 2013, Harris 2013 and Pacheco-Vega 2015
10. Research Questions  How can we govern bottled water in a country (Mexico) where municipal water supply is not trusted? and  What does implementing the “human right to water” paradigm entail for the bottled water industry in Mexico?
11. From a local perspective…  Determinants of bottled water consumption at the local scale o Public health concerns o Hydration and luxury consumption o Ethical and luxury brand marketing o Ease of access (lack of access to water fountains and/or bottle refilling stations)  But… wait a minute… o Cities (local governments) are responsible for providing safe drinking water… o Yet financial concerns have led municipalities to privatize their water supply… o No regulatory framework for extraction, packaging and consumption of BW
12. Is bottled water permissible within the context of a water-centric city?  Answer: It depends.  It depends? On what? On how you define water-centric city On what goals you have as a water-centric city  water as conservation,  water as consumption,  water as a business
13. HRW as a frame of meaning against privatization of water supply vs acceptance of bottled water (norm diffusion)
14. HRW and BW from a domestic- international perspective  Implementing the HRW will necessitate a focus on two simultaneous strategies: a) Remunicipalization of private water service delivery (LASA 2016) b) Regulation and control of the global bottled water industry across scales (Water-Centric Cities Conference 2016, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee)
15. Regulation of bottled and tap water US Canada Mexico Tap water US Environmental Protection Agency (Safe Drinking Water Act) Provinces (ownership of water supply and distributive model) – but also safe drinking water acts Health Secretariat Municipalities are responsible for providing it (water utilities) National Water Commission governs well drilling. Bottled water US Food and Drugs Agency Food and Drugs Acts and regulation (food) Health Secretariat (solely for health purposes) This simple classification into tap water and bottled water obscures the realities of extraction, packaging, distribution, etc. (contrary to what Posnick and Kim 2002 argue) Reality is much more complex… and we need to include ecosystem health in our understanding of these issues
16. Problems with the regulation of bottled water in cities  No clear understanding of negative impacts on water wells, nor any sanctions towards extractive industries.  Solely focusing on human health concerns obscures the realities of ecosystem health issues.  Alternative water uses (other industries, urban redevelopment, agriculture) also become problematic.  To become a water-centric city, we need to include the bottled water industry business in the conversation.
17. Preliminary conclusions  Implementing the human right to water as we might want to believe it is.  We need an interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, open and honest discussion about what it would take to modernize water supply in Mexico  Bottled water, regardless of its global dimension, is often times a local business and thus needs to be included in the conversation.  Governance spider webs – overlapping jurisdictions, regulation mismatch, regulatory capture all present challenges for urban water governance in Mexico and Latin America
18. Acknowledgements  Nain Martinez and the Mexican Students Association at University of California, Berkeley for the invitation  Center for Latin American Studies, University of California Berkeley for hosting me  UC-MEXUS CONACYT for financial support to my e-waste project with Dr. Kate O’Neill (ESPM, UC Berkeley) which enables me to be here. My research assistants (Luis Alberto Hernandez, Maribel Eudave, Daniela Ramirez, Karina Leyva) and my graduate students (Alfredo Ortega, Laura Estrada) for research assistantship and helping me think through these issues. Audiences at ISA 2016 (Atlanta), WPSA 2016 (San Diego), MPSA 2016 (Chicago), Water-Centric Cities (Milwaukee) and American University (Washington DC)
19. Thank you! Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) http://www.raulpacheco.org Twitter: @raulpacheco Facebook: DrPachecoVega E-mail: raul.pacheco-vega@cide.edu