Is Mexico’s water agenda aiming too high?
An aerial view of the Xochimilco canal system. Image credit: Amazing Ariel / Alamy.
by Marcela Ánimas and Laura Aguayo. Ms. Ánimas is a Partner at Nader, Hayaux & Goebel, where she works and collaborates with Ms. Aguayo.
“Ideas have been put forward, but they are not enough,” says Raúl Rodríguez Márquez, chairman of the Water Advisory Council, about the 2026 budget proposal for CONAGUA. Mexico’s problems with water are not new, but the havoc unleashed each year seems to reach new levels: droughts, scarcity, pollution, overexploitation, floods, and many other challenges have focused the attention of both the public and the authorities on this issue.
The risk management and budgetary challenges posed by the paradigmatic unprecedented floods and droughts in a long-neglected water sector have been devastating. The costs of groundwater depletion are estimated at around 0.1% of Mexico’s GDP; this number could even stand as high as 4.2% if we factor in the aggregated costs of soil degradation.
In an attempt to tackle this complex problem, last year the head of CONAGUA, Efraín Morales, shared the 2024-2030 National Water Program, whose main objective is to guarantee the human right to water through four pillars and several measures, including completion of 16 strategic projects to supply drinking water to areas affected by severe drought and irrigation technification of 200,000 hectares in 13 irrigation districts. In the days following the announcement, during President Sheinbaum’s daily conference, the Federal government also announced the highly regarded Sustainability and Human Right to Water National Agreement, which has garnered Sheinbaum international accolades and earned her the WEF 2025 award.
This National Agreement, among other goals, encourages water concession titleholders to enter into agreements with CONAGUA to help prioritize the human right to water by temporarily assigning allocated water volumes back to CONAGUA, and to finance a myriad of activities and infrastructure investments to aid the Federal government in the surmountable task of remediating polluted rivers, bringing water to communities that lack the service, and other actions that could assist the government improve the Integrated Water Resources Management strategies.
Simultaneously, CONAGUA has launched the ‘Adopt a Riverbank’ (Adopta un tramo de ribera de río) program, which organizes cleanup, restoration and all kinds of infrastructure, measuring, and technological investment by private parties to ‘save’ rivers in Mexico. Furthermore, CONAGUA has undertaken various digitalization projects seeking to create user-friendly, trustworthy, and simplified access to CONAGUA’s permitting processes.
While positive, all these improvements and goals may be overlooking one serious concern; the absence of a key element: money.
Amid these programs and projects CONAGUA faces a new challenge: a potential 1.2% reduction in the 2026 budget. Unfortunately, slashing of much-needed healthy budgets seems to happen every year and is becoming the new norm. One of the most drastic budget cuts came in 2025, with a 40% reduction compared to 2024.
In short, CONAGUA has plans, but no funds to see them through despite water having been named a national security issue. The allocation of federal funds to CONAGUA has been weighed and found wanting.
Perhaps the government should refocus efforts by leveraging the philanthropic investments of the National Agreement and the riverbanks adoption program, and converting them into a long-term solution. How? Audacious plans and more innovative and profitable financial instruments, such as blue bonds for remediation and conservation, which pose smarter opportunities to invest in water efficiency, the circular economy and footprint reduction, improving management and climate change adaptation.
*The contents and opinions posted or shared herein are of personal nature to the authors and do not represent the opinion of any other entity that the writers are or may be affiliated with.