Conceptual proposal: governance and human right to water with a gender approach

Governance refers to the choice of the aims and values that direct society and the processes through which collective issues are managed; for example, rules of conduct and principles for resource allotment. ^{Murillo (2012)} distinguishes two traditions in the definition of governance. On the one side, international organizations (for example the World Bank) are centered on the performance of state institutions and emphasize elements like accountability, political stability, government efficiency, normative quality, and rule of law. On the other, the European Union is centered on the relationship between government and society through participation, with values like openness and social responsibility. This article adheres to this second tradition because it allows recovering experiences of organization and social participation in Latin America, directed at winning spaces and fostering the construction of citizenship ^{(López and Chávez, 2012)}.

The Mexican framework for governance in water does not consider gender differences that lead to a differentiated use of the resource. Neither the National Water Law nor its regulations have any article that considers women as users or indicates the role they should play in decision making ^{(Mujer y Medio Ambiente A.C., 2008}; ^{González, 2014)}. The National Water Program (2007-2012) uses the term “vulnerable group” to refer to women, youth, elders, indigenous and disabled people, who together constitute the majority of the population, so that the expression becomes inoperative and incapable of preventing gender discrimination in the access and benefit of water ^{(Rico, 2006}; ^{Vázquez, 2011)}.

Governance for water that is sensitive to gender stems from recognizing that women and men of different social condition, ethnicity and age have differentiated access to water resources and use and manage them in a diverse way ^{(Soares, 2012)}. Some of the consequences of water scarcity, bad quality and high fees for women are the following: work overload; excessive spending in relation to other services; reduction in activities for personal development; deterioration of the quality of life ^{(Red de Género y Medio Ambiente, 2006}; ^{Franco, 2013)}. Climate change has aggravated the situation because of the increase in the frequency and intensity of storms, hurricanes, alterations in the rainy season, and diseases associated to stored water ^{(Schenerock et al., 2011)}. The lack of quality water entails the violation of other rights; for example, to health and to citizen participation, so the human right to water must be central in the agenda of gender equity at the global level ^{(Aureli and Brelet, 2004)}).

^{Rodríguez, Salazar and Salazar (2013)} contribute to the conceptualization of the human right to water with a gender approach. The attributes of this right are the following: availability, quality, physical accessibility, and affordability. The first refers to water supply that must be continuous and sufficient. In second place, water must be healthy, that is, it should not have microorganisms, chemical or radioactive substances, in addition to having acceptable color, odor and flavor. Third, the facilities and services should be available to the whole population. Lastly, the fee should be attainable for all people, particularly those in a situation of economic disadvantage. When one or more of these attributes fail, women must compensate the deficits in the service through an increase in their work hours. This “gender subsidy” constitutes a substantial contribution to the economy; without it, the cost for goods and services would be higher, and it would have to be assumed by the State or the market. Women offer additional hours of work in detriment to their health and quality of life, at the same time that the State fails in its task of safeguarding their wellbeing and full observance of their rights.

Work zone and methodological strategy

The municipality of La Antigua has a surface of 131 km² that extends over the central coastal zone of the state of Veracruz. The work was performed in three localities that are part of this municipality: José Cardel (municipal township, urban), La Antigua¹ and Loma Iguana (two rural localities) (Figure 1). The idea was to compare an urban population center (José Cardel) with two rural ones of different degrees of marginalization (La Antigua and Loma Iguana); that is, to understand the differences inside a municipality that is globally catalogued as with low degree of marginalization, but which inside presents differences not only in this aspect but also in the opportunities for education and employment. Actually, only the municipal township has a low degree of marginalization (Table 1).

Source: authors’ elaboration with Arcgis® software version 9.3.

Figure 1 Municipality of La Antigua and three localities studied. 

Data collection was carried out throughout 2015 using a mixed methodological design that allowed articulating different approaches. The techniques were three: survey, interviews and workshops. The interview is the most affordable and versatile method, and it was used in the three localities. The combination of methods allowed for close to 90 people to become involved in different stages of the research process (Table 2).

In May 2016, questionnaires were applied to 40 women heads of family in three neighborhoods in José Cardel: Vicente López, Chapul and Centro². A simple random selection was done for proportions with a margin of 10 % and level of trust of 80 %, defined that way from the degree of homogeneity that a sample of households with feminine leadership and low levels of marginalization implies. The selection gave as a result a total of 203 households. Through INEGI’s SINCE Program, the blocks from the three neighborhoods where it was most feasible to locate households with feminine leadership were found. With the help of Google Maps, this information was corroborated. A sample of a maximum of 40 questionnaires and a minimum of 30 was defined, distributed by neighborhoods: Chapul (10 questionnaires), Fraccionamiento Vicente López (20 questionnaires) and Centro (10 questionnaires). The information was captured in a database created with the Excel® software.

The workshops and interviews were designed to deepen the understanding of the functioning of the operating organism in the municipality. They were carried out with users of the water service, inhabitants from the three localities and people of both sexes located in key positions and with decision power in the operating organism and the municipal government. The staff from CMAPS included Hugo Castro Rosado, director in February 2015; Miguel Ángel Solano Ortiz, director in August and October of the same year; Orlando Zapata Ruiz, responsible for water quality; Fernando Escobar, works; Erika Fernández Pérez, water culture; Martín Vázquez Murcia, accountability. The staff interviewed from the municipal government was the following: Mario Palmeros Alarcón, municipal trustee; María Esther Fernández Chiquito, director of the Municipal Women’s Institute; María Clementina Pérez, secretary of the municipal presidency; Gloria Escoto Labourdet, municipal agent from the rural locality of La Antigua; Mercedes Guzmán Ceballos, municipal agent from Loma Iguana. Most of these people agreed to be taped and only one asked to be anonymous in this document, request that was respected through the use of a pseudonym; a couple gave only their first name and have been cited that way.

The Municipal Commission for Drinking Water and Sanitation in La Antigua

The decentralization process in Veracruz began during the 1980s with the instauration of the State Commission for Drinking Water and Sewage System (Comisión Estatal de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado, CEAPA). Law Number 72 for Management and Sanitation of Water in the state of Veracruz facilitated the creation of state, regional and municipal operating organisms ^{(León and Aguero, 2010)}, which are the spear head of decentralization for they constitute the main instrument for financial autonomy and independence ^{(Galindo and Palerm, 2007)}). In 2001 the legislative power in Veracruz decreed three laws³ that allowed the transference of the provision of services for drinking water, drainage, sewage system, treatment and regulation of residual waters to the municipalities.

The transference in the municipality of La Antigua took place in 2002. To execute it a commission was formed by representatives from the state government, the city council, and the Municipal Commission for Water and Sanitation ^{(Gaceta Oficial, 2002)}. In 2008 the creation of the para-municipal organism for water management was authorized, called Municipal Commission for Drinking Water and Sanitation of La Antigua, Veracruz ^{(Gaceta Legislativa, 2008)}.

The para-municipal organisms are managed by a director and a government organ constituted by the municipal president, the councilor in charge of the branch, the comptroller, and three citizen representatives. The members of the government agency are designated by the city council, while the director is designated by the municipal president, with authorization from the city council or the government agency ^{(Gaceta Oficial, 2016b)}. In 2005, slightly less than half (43 %) of the municipalities in Veracruz had given the administration of their waters over to a state organism (Water Commission for the State of Veracruz, Comisión de Aguas del Estado de Veracruz, CAEV), and only the largest had a municipal (31 %) or para-municipal (14 %) organism ^{(Domínguez, 2010)}.

The Water Law from the state of Veracruz ^{(Gaceta Oficial, 2016a)} gives broad functions to the para-municipal organisms: organizing the administration, functioning, conservation and operation of public services for drinking water supply, drainage, sewage system, treatment and regulation of residual waters; establishing fees and tariffs, charging them, and managing financing for a more complete provision of services; granting or revoking permits for residual water discharge; paying contributions, rights, uses and federal products in water matters; ordering and executing the suspension of services; promoting the participation of social and private sectors in their provision; supporting auto-construction of small water infrastructure works in rural communities or popular neighborhoods; applying sanctions for violations; using the income collected in the expansion of water infrastructure.

The diagnosis performed by ^{Domínguez (2010)} about water governance in Veracruz identifies the following limitations in the operating organisms: low fees; lack of planning; age of the networks and piping; institutional inability to renovate them. In fact, the municipal network in La Antigua is around 40 years old and is the legacy of administrations prior to para-municipalization. There are 11 wells in total; four in the township and the rest in rural localities. The wells in the township are the most efficient: they produce between 18 and 60 liters per second, compared to five and 13 liters per second in the rural environment. In the rural locality of La Antigua there are two wells and in Loma Iguana, one. Those in La Antigua produce five and six liters per second, respectively, and the one in Loma Iguana, four and a half. They have the lowest yields in the whole municipality, confirming the historical backwardness of rural areas in Veracruz described by ^{León and Agüero (2010)} has not been overcome.

In José Cardel the system functions 24 hours a day, and when a well stops the others continue operating. On the contrary, those from the two rural localities studied offer intermittent service and are operated from the township, so the failures must be reported by the municipal agent and take some time to be addressed. The governance model for the municipality lacks water committees integrated by users; there are no social arrangements based on reciprocity, characteristics of peasant and indigenous communities ^{(Galindo and Palerm, 2007)}. In the rest of the article the reach of the para-municipalization as framework for governance to guarantee the human right to water is analyzed, studying each one of its four attributes mentioned above (availability, quality, access and affordability).

The whole upper part is the one that suffers: water availability

Most (80 %) of the women heads of households surveyed in José Cardel said they had enough water for their daily needs. A relatively higher number (85o%) mentioned that water reaches their homes every day and a still higher number (90 %) said there is not a specific schedule for when it arrives, that is, it is available all the time. Those with availability problems attributed them to the location of their households: “we are at a high level… they take [water in] other houses and… the pressure falls. It’s during mornings and nights when there is more pressure”. However, the water does not run out, but rather not much arrives (Angelina Méndez, August 2015).

Three fourths (72.5 %) of those surveyed have not suffered cuts in the water supply. When there are, it is “only for a little while” because they have to repair it around three times a year. The problem is that “they never tell us when they will cut the water”, and the suspension can last two or three days (Angelina Méndez, August 2015). Staff from the CMAPS argues that it is generally due to electrical failures over which there have no control; when it is equipment in the drinking water network, “it obviously cannot be foreseen or forecasted… it happens and it must be fixed” (Fernando Escobar, August 2015).

In the rural town of La Antigua the story is different, since the lack of water in the high parts is generalized. The men and women who participated in the workshop calculated that approximately 25o% of the users do not have enough water for their daily needs, and in times of drought the situation is still harder. From José Cardel they decide when to shut off the pump without consulting with the population. The users in the higher part are willing to be supplied at whatever time: “at least a couple of hours during the night let the water reach us, when they close the taps and sleep, we stay awake… leave the pump on for longer… at four in the morning and at that time we get up” (Workshop, anonymous participant, October 2015).

In Loma Iguana the pump also turns on at specific times and it does not manage to cover the needs of the whole population: “now they turn it on three times [a day], I think, but no more… it falls and… everyone goes to get water” (Marcelino Contreras, October 2015). The mechanism that regulates automatically the amount of water that is pumped to the deposit had been broken down for one month, reason why the schedule for water distribution had been programmed in the township. As in the rural town of La Antigua, the farthest and highest households are left without it: “over here one waits for water to come, and if it comes for a little while, it is only a small stream and that’s it” (Anacleta Molina Ortiz, October 2015). The schedule for distribution has not been agreed upon with the women users and they are the ones most affected. At seven in the morning “there is not a drop of water”, right when “we have most of the work of getting water, because we need to wash, cook and bathe the children to go to school, all of that” (Mercedes Guzmán Ceballos, October 2015). ^{Soares (2012)} defines this lack of information and consensus as a governance style that is not democratic and blind to the needs of women.

In the two rural localities there are cuts because of repairs. In the rural town of La Antigua they have taken the pump all weekend, while in Loma Iguana it even had to be replaced together with part of the piping, situation that made difficult the water supply for nearly two months. When it is scarce because of different causes, the livestock producers in the region “give it away” in exchange for a “soda” for the water tanker truck drivers (and a vote for the official political party, PRI).

In sum, although the service in José Cardel is more continuous, the women users from the three localities lack information about when water arrives and when it is cut, and there are differences in function of where their household is located. The women from the two rural localities in the municipality (La Antigua and Loma Iguana) suffer from the lack of a service because of non-consensual schedules, at the same time that they make up for this by waiting for the water to arrive (through the network or by a water tanker truck) at whatever time that is. The intermittent non-consensual service turns out to be inconvenient and stressful, with which the paradox identified by ^{Salazar and Paz (2010)} in other contexts is confirmed: women are the principal water users and they are also the ones who, with scarce decision power, attempt to solve the problems of bad distribution. In the three localities, but especially in the rural ones (La Antigua and Loma Iguana), a gender subsidy is present that compensates for failures in the service provided by the municipality ^{(Rodríguez et al., 2013)}.

I have never taken water from the tap: quality

Of the women surveyed in José Cardel, 75 % consider that the quality of the water that reaches their households is good or very good and another 20 % considers it is fair. In 82.5 % of the families diseases (stomach, skin) that could be related to water are not frequent. María del Carmen Luna Troncoso, nurse with 28 years of working experience in José Cardel, confirmed this information. Of all the items analyzed (odor, color, flavor), the one with best score was color, followed by odor and flavor last, which only half (47.5 %) of the users considers to be good due to the chlorine content. Treating water with chlorine represents one of the biggest challenges for the compliance of the State in water provision ^{(Domínguez, 2010)}. The risks would need to be communicated to the population since, according to the Ministry of Health (cited in ^{Mujer y Medio Ambiente A.C., 2008}), backwardness in the water quality has been found and in the evaluation of the risks that this represents for health.

In the rural town of La Antigua the opinion about water quality is quite negative and involves the color and the texture, in addition to the flavor. The women and men who attended the workshop mentioned that the water has a yellowish color that gets clothes dirty when washing; a woman described the water that comes out of the tap as “milk chocolate”. Skin problems were mentioned and the recommendation of the clinic’s dentist about brushing their teeth with bottled water, due to the presence of blisters on a child’s gums. Even to shower, “the water is very ugly, I mean, you can’t, you shower and you can even feel itchiness” (María del Carmen Delgado García, August 2015). Orlando Zapata attributed this situation to the amount of iron in the water. Given the proximity of the locality to the coast, very shallow waters must be used so they are not saline, and the more chlorine that is added to the water, the more it is oxidized and becomes cloudy. This has a solution, but “we cannot invest in the system” because of lack of budget. In addition, the storage tanks do not have sufficient maintenance. The tanker truck water that is sent when the network fails also arrives dirty: “I feel humiliated that they give me that; really, I feel like they are attacking my dignity as a person, as a human being… Would they give that water to their children?... I want to have them in front of me and say: “Hey, would you wash your shirt… with this water?” (Workshop, anonymous participant, October 2015).

In Loma Iguana the problem of water quality is not as severe, but there is also mistrust regarding the network water, primarily because of the lack of maintenance of the storage tank and the distribution system (tubes, hoses) where soil and animals have been found, both live (frogs) and dead (iguanas). The chlorine flavor, which upsets the users, was also repeatedly mentioned.

In sum, there are important differences between the three localities, with the rural town of La Antigua reporting more problems in terms of texture, color and flavor, while in José Cardel and Loma Iguana the main inconvenient is the chlorine flavor. The bad quality of the water causes skin diseases that impact negatively the life of women, since caring for sick people falls on them ^{(Red de Género y Medio Ambiente, 2006}; ^{Mujer y Medio Ambiente A.C., 2008}; ^{Schenerock et al., 2011)}. It can be said that it is impossible to comply with traditional gender roles (washing clothes, cooking, bathing boys and girls), problem whose solution is discarded for lack of budget. It is assumed that the women will have to find a solution to the problem from their households, that is, the gender subsidy comes up, through which unpaid work of women covers the deficiencies in the service ^{(Rodríguez et al., 2013)}. The low quality of the water that a user interprets as an attack against her dignity clearly expresses the vision of water as a human right ^{(Aureli and Brelet, 2004)}, as well as being an excellent example of the lack of institutional mechanisms to avoid gender discrimination in water policy ^{(Rico, 2006}; ^{Franco, 2013)}.

We almost all have a barrel: access to water

Of the survey respondents in José Cardel, 85 % have water taps from the public network within their households and 12.5 % have a tap from the public network outside the household, but inside the land where they live. Most (85 %) have some form of water storage. The predominant ones are, in this order: water tank, barrel, concrete tank, cistern and buckets. Also, 82.5 % has showers and 60 % washing machine.

In the rural locality of La Antigua it was possible to detect the importance of storage to face scarcity and intermittent service. Two women said they had repositories with 700 liters capacity and that they did not suffer from water scarcity; they both live in the center, not in the high part of town. In the workshop, the testimony from a woman who suffered an accident while transporting water buckets was heard, and from another one who waits “anxiously, standing there on the road” for the water tanker truck that the municipality sends when there are failures in the network.

In Loma Iguana the issue of storage is equally important. “Almost all of us have a water barrel, we fill it and from there we take” (Mercedes Guzmán Ceballos, October 2015). Irma Lozano bought herself “a 200-liter tank to hold water”, while Reina (unknown last name) has water even when it ceases to arrive for eight days or more, thanks to the deposit that her son built, who is a construction worker. Those who do not have good deposits must carry the water, generally from the house of a relative: “there is a lady who… with a pail would come to… get water here with her son” (Irma Lozano, October 2015). Others get water from wells that are in bad conditions: “sometimes we don’t have water and we are all desperate looking for water in the wells that are very dirty” (Anacleta Molina Ortiz, October 2015).

Table 3 presents data about delay in payment and suspension of the service in the three localities studied⁴. According to the CMAPS staff, before cutting the service they look for defaulting users to cover their debt under a scheme of paying in installments. The invitations begin to be made when there is a debt of more than three months. Likewise, in the Water Fair carried out in December each year, defaulting users are summoned to get up to date with discounts and promotions. The cuts are avoided because they affect negatively the party in power: “due to political issues we cannot take certain actions that could perhaps be somewhat forceful… What happens? We vote for someone… he said he was going to help us and now they are cutting the water” (Fernando Escobar, August 2015). The wealthy people have better negotiation power for the water tap to be reinstalled: “we find someone who has power, someone who has influences… the man speaks to the mayor, to the director, [and] then they put the tap back on” (Orlando Zapata Ruiz, August 2015). These testimonies confirm the institutional weakness and politicization of the service identified in other studies ^{(Torregrosa et al., 2005}; ^{Soares, 2007)}.

In Loma Iguana the existence of two women heads of households whose service was suspended was detected⁵. Ana Luisa Rigada Carvajal owed $13 000.00 (fees plus surcharge corresponding to 10 years, approximately) and Guadalupe Gómez Managua, $10 000.00 (eight years). Rigada entered a payment scheme, but she did not complete it and lost the money that she paid: “I would pay 500 pesos and 500 pesos and 500 pesos, but then I couldn’t anymore… I got stuck… I must have given about two thousand pesos of the agreement”. Gómez was contemplating making similar arrangements at the time of the interview. She had to abandon her home to tend to her husband who was an inmate in a prison in Tuxpan; she worked in a diner in front of the prison for six months and when she returned they had cut off the water.

The difficulties that they both face to perform the most basic activities are huge. Rigada used to obtain water from a neighbor, but “she fought” with her. Now she buys bottled water to cook and drink ($50.00 weekly); to bathe she goes to her sister-in-law’s; she pays someone to wash her clothes ($50.00 weekly). Her son pays for “a water tanker truck… but only every fortnight” to fill two barrels of 200 liters each. Gómez does not spend so much in water, but rather she receives help, although sometimes conditioned. Her neighbor offered water in exchange for sexual favors; she said “no, and he took it away”. She bathes at her son’s house; to cook, “wherever I get a bucket, here and there”; her daughter brings a demijohn by motorcycle or she buys two demijohns per week because “I can’t afford anymore”. Rigada lives by herself, but Gómez takes care of five grandchildren, two with disabilities: “a friend tells me, I give you some, take, my sister… Why don’t they bring you water? You spend so much time bathing the kids…” (Guadalupe Gómez, October 2015).

In sum, various factors increase the lack of access to water. The first is the place of residence, with the municipal township being more benefitted than the rural zones, problem that reflects the situation of the country⁶. The second has to do with the financial possibility of acquiring or building the water deposits that make the difference between having water or not, as well as other facilities that facilitate performing the traditional gender roles: bathing and washing clothes. Water cuts from lack of payment in Loma Iguana affect primarily and in quite an unequal way the women heads of households, contributing to the deterioration in their quality of life, because they have to move from their home to do the most basic things, for example, bathing. A water policy with gender equity would have to take these factors into account of differentiation to guarantee the human right to water ^{(Soares, 2012)}. In January 2016 a change was made to Article 100 of the Water Law in the state of Veracruz to give operating organisms the possibility of granting subsidies for the water service to private citizens of scarce economic resources, vulnerable groups that belong to areas of high marginalization, retired people, pensioned people, and the elderly ^{(Gaceta Oficial, 2016a)}. Once more, the specific characteristics of women like Rigada and Gómez disappear under these terms, none of which refer specifically to gender inequality.

They don’t make the water, water is a natural resource: attainability

Most of the women heads of households in José Cardel (90 %) have a gauge in their households and pay according to what they consume. The gauges are a question of “operative efficiency”: “the ideal is that the water you extract is what you are selling” (Orlando Zapata Ruiz, August 2015). In rural zones like La Antigua and Loma Iguana, the CMAPS charges a fixed fee ($75.00), except when there is a need to replace or install new taps which, per regulations, come with a gauge included. The idea is for the whole user register of users to have gauges sooner or later, since “fixed fees… are like hanging yourself” because they do not allow counting the relation between extraction, losses and consumption (Orlando Zapata Ruiz, August 2015). The risk of this policy is that the needs of the users better equipped to pay are prioritized and the concept of a “dignity level”, which guarantees access to a minimum amount of the product without cost, is rejected as unmanageable ^{(Barkin, 2003)}.

More than half (65 %) of the survey respondents in José Cardel consider the price they pay to be just; the rest think it is expensive. The approximate fee with gauge is $100.00 monthly, although we heard of lower figures ($50.00, $75.00) and higher ($200.00, $300.00), depending on the consumption and location of the household. To these amounts, we must add that in 87.5 % of the households surveyed they purchase bottled water, two to three demijohns a week, because of the chlorine flavor, generally from local purifiers that sell the demijohn for five or ten pesos versus 25 or 30 for the commercial ones. The weekly average expense in bottled water is $53.43, which considered monthly exceeds what is paid for the CMAPS service. The amount is quite close to the one reported by ^{Pacheco-Vega (2015)} at a national level ($254.52) for 2012.

Among the users from the two rural localities (La Antigua and Loma Iguana), there is more resignation than agreement about the fee: “we have grown used to it” (Berta, unknown last name, October 2015). Some remember having paid lower amounts in past times (the previous fee was $45.00) and indicated that the increases are not justified; members of the CMAPS staff and several women users attribute them simply to the high default in payment. Compliance with the fee payment is the only form of citizen participation in the municipality, in addition to the three representatives in the government organ about which not a single person interviewed or surveyed had any knowledge. The users simply “become accustomed” to the increases, situation that shows how the participation is reduced to obedience in face of decisions that have already been made ^{(Castro, 2005)}. To this we must add the spending that users do in both localities for bottled water, problem recognized even by the staff from the operating organism. The water quality of the network is “acceptable” and the flavor “can be avoided very easily with an active carbon filter in the homes”. However, “it is much about routine to buy the demijohn… drinking from the tap stopped being common”. In addition, in “the operating system we don’t do anything about erasing that image” and even “we in the commission buy demijohns” (Orlando Zapata Ruiz, October 2015).

In sum, the fees for the water service increase with the purchase of the demijohn, which without a doubt contributes to the commercialization of the liquid. The municipality of La Antigua contributes to the increase in the consumption of bottled water in México, because of the inability of the municipalities to provide water that is apt for human consumption ^{(Pacheco-Vega, 2015a) 7}. Given that 70 % of poor men and women in the world are female ^{(Aureli and Brelet, 2004)}, and that women have less access to money in cash and liquidity than men (^{Cleaver and Elson, 1995}), it is imperative to emphasize the issue of attainability as one of the attributes of the human right to water and to rethink how it can become effective for women users of low income. The increases in water fees must be coupled with an improvement in the service, in addition to a redistribution of income.